1. The total number of trees felled by Devon County Council for the years 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 (up to the most recent month of available data)
* For each year of data, please state and break down:
* The reason for the felling of said trees
* The cost to the council of felling trees
* The locations of trees felled
* The species of trees felled and in what capacity
* If trees felled were street trees or rural
Trees are sometimes felled by Devon County Council (DCC) for reasons other than public safety including: Conservation management and enhancement works, particularly on DCC owned Country Parks or other countryside sites, including Stover Country Park near Newton Abbot (i.e. for the restoration and management of lowland heathland habitat);
Denbury Hill Form near Ipplepen, to help to protect a Scheduled Ancient Monument;
Knapp Copse Local Nature Reserve near Sidbury to protect and extend flower-rich grassland and mires communities.
However, no specific record is kept detailing such tree felling, which usually involves young growth of secondary woodland or scrub therefore this information is not held.
Work relating to DCC development schemes, particularly highways and waste management infrastructure projects and construction related to school sites, provide details of any felled trees through relevant planning applications and these are made publicly available. However, there is no central record maintained.
Details of previous responses found on the Council’s publication scheme may be helpful Trees Felled and Planted
2. The total number of trees planted by Devon County Council for the years 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 (up to the most recent month of available data)
* For each year of data, please state and break down:
* The cost to the council of planting trees
* The locations of trees planted
* The species of trees planted and in what capacity
* If trees planted were street trees or rural
3.The total number of trees under Devon County Council authority in the years 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 (up to the most recent month of available data)
* For each year of data, please state and break down:
* The locations of trees
* The species of trees
* If trees were street trees or rural
For both questions 2 and 3, we are unable to provide this information under Regulation 12(4)(b) of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 – ‘Manifestly Unreasonable’. This is because, we do not hold a central record and due to the volume of information held, and the different locations at which it is held, the time it would take to locate, retrieve and extract all this data would be deemed to be ‘manifestly unreasonable’.
We recognise that this exception is subject to the Public Interest Test and are confident that, given the Council’s duty to carefully consider the use of staff time and the spending of public money, the public interest is best served by withholding this information at the present time.
Details of previous responses found on the Council’s publication scheme may be helpful Trees in Exeter