Agenda item

Report of the Director of Recreation.

This report outlines the Council’s tree management and maintenance procedures and policy as it stands in 2023.

Consideration was given to the report of the Director of Recreation.

Members made the following comments:

·       The Chair and Committee congratulated Oliver Jones on his permanent appointment as Director of Recreation.

·       It was a great report and it was good to see the Tree Strategy growing from strength to strength.

Oliver Jones (Director of Recreation) and David Houghton (Tree Manager) made the following comments in response to members questions:

·       As to why there had been increased number of tree losses since the pandemic, this could be looked into. However there had been a net increase of 1000 trees from 28,000 to 29,000 over the period.

·       In some years there had been more tree felling than other years, it would be difficult to tell why it happened during the pandemic, the Council had however been planting more trees than it had been removing.

·       With regards to new trees in wards such as Kilburn, Kings Cross and Holborn, 79 new trees were planted in Kilburn in 2021/22, 23 in Kings Cross last year and 35 in 2021/22.

·       Some new trees had been planted in Holborn which was largely through funding from the Urban Tree Challenge Fund

·       There were some years that new trees were not planted, it was determined by the programme cycle.

·       The Council was open to looking at and investigating more sites if suggestions were to be made by members.

·       With regards to the skill level of the Council’s Tree team, Camden was the host borough of the London Tree Officer Association, the current Chair of the Association worked for Camden’s Tree Manager, Camden’s Tree Manager sat on the national executive around trees and advised the Woodland Advisory Committee nationally.

·       The Council’s Tree team was well placed and at the forefront of policy development as well as day to day work on trees.

·       The Council did have, which was a sector problem challenges with recruitment particularly when officers left or changed jobs. The Council had more success more recently in recruiting officers compared to during the covid years.

·       With regards to felling of trees, there would be upcoming guidance in November on the duty to consult with residents. Once further information was provided the Council would be looking at how it would comply with this requirement.

·       The Council did notify residents through its website which provided a map and the reason for the felling/removal of a tree.

·       Officer contact details were also provided on posters stuck on trees.

·       In relation to leaning trees, the Council did not consider these to be dangerous. It was only seen as dangerous if the roots had started to lift up or it were felt that it would catch the wind in a peculiar manner.

·       For the tree outside the pub, that appeared to have been felled because the roots were starting to lift. Officers agreed to find out further information on this.

ACTION BY: Tree Manager

·       With regards to planting of evergreen trees, the Council was always looking in the north of the borough for places to plant trees. The Council did however get a mixed response from residents especially in conservation areas where they were not quite keen on these types of trees.

·       Officers were happy to look into planting evergreen trees in the right place. The trees would still drop their leaves but would have less of an impact.

·       With regards to tree stumps with danger tape all around it, this was probably due to a bacterial reaction or yeast as there was no water coming up from where the tree had been felled. The tape was probably put on by the Council’s contractor to highlight that there was a stump there and to prevent people from walking into the stump.

·       With regards to pollarding, a high percentage of pollarding carried out by the Council was due to subsidence which was a big problem in Camden.

·       A lot of the borough was on very shrinkable clay and the trees in those areas had to be pollarded where they had been damaged to control their water uptake. However, pollarding was only carried out on 7% of the borough’s tree population and they appeared to be the most prominent on the street which people saw.

·       The Council did frequently receive insurance claims from residents which were increasing and as the climate continued to change there where predictions that this would continue, so unfortunately pollarding would continue to occur. The Council would rather have a pollarded tree than have a tree dug up due to a subsidence claim.

·       With regards to planting of trees by community groups, the Council did try to collate figures from other organisations such as Camden Forest, the Heath, Royal Parks as well as internally to get a good picture of the planting figures. Officers would be happy to collect the planting figures from Dream for Trees, Growing Green and other community groups.

ACTION BY: Tree Manager

·       The planting figures were on the Councils website for the community groups collected from so far.

·       The Council worked with Dream for Trees on the Highgate Reservoir providing advice on species choice.

·       With regards to falling of leaves, where complaints were received from residents about a large fall of leaves, the Council’s Environment team would be notified and would be looked into.

·       On the pollen, the Council tried to avoid planting silver birch trees near people’s homes and schools because people got a big reaction from these types of trees.

·       The Council did have some pollarded Hornbeams which were on a 3-year cycle. Officers were happy to have a look at these trees in more detail and provide information on what cycle they were on.

ACTION BY: Tree Manager

·       A breakdown of who was providing canopy cover was difficult because the Council was working off of a remote data set. The Council was looking at refreshing all its data, a canopy assessment report was published in 2017, the Council was looking to do this again in the future to get an idea of private canopy cover, however it was not a figure which the Council had at the moment.

·       With regards to planting trees, the Council looked at replacing all of its trees unless it was not good to do so because for example the tree was in the wrong place or a self-seeded tree. The Council would also look at changing the species if it were more appropriate to do so.

·       The Council also had its trees mapped out, so it was aware of roads that may not have as many trees. The Council would also carry out a survey where an officer would go out to check if there were any utilities across the street. This involved the use of a CAT scanner. If the location was found to be okay, a trial pit was carried out, which would check if planting could be carried out at the location.

·       This would then go into the Councils planting programme, a species would be allocated based on its location and then planted in the winter. The planting element would be carried out by the Council’s Tree Planting Officer

Officers were thanked for their excellent report.

RESOLVED –

THAT the report be noted.