Cork City Council’s management of trees will be balanced and proportionate to the actual risks from trees, and in balancing tree risks and benefits Cork City Council will: • Manage the risk of significant injury or property damage to levels that are as low as reasonably practicable.
• Operate a system of proactive and reactive tree inspections.
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Maintain a detailed record of trees and inspections.
• Ensure that suitably qualified and competent arborists carry out tree inspections and any subsequent tree works in compliance with industry best practice.
• Ensure that any tree works are carried out within the appropriate time frame.
INTERNAL POLICY 3: Cork City Council’s management of trees will be balanced and proportionate to the actual risks from trees, and in balancing tree risks and benefits.
ACTION 8. Develop a Tree Safety Management Policy to ensure public trees are inspected and managed in accordance with best practice.
[4.6] Public Tree Removal Cork City Council has a duty to manage its tree population for the benefit of the wider community and in accordance with good arboriculture practices. Tree removal will be a last resort option after all alternative solutions have been explored in accordance with the policy set out below. INTERNAL POLICY 4: Public trees will only be removed as a last resort option after all alternative solutions have been explored and will only be considered in the following circumstances, based on the written recommendation of a suitably qualified and experienced arborist: • Safety Hazard: A tree is dead/dying and/or is considered hazardous due to its poor structural and/or physiological condition and leaving deadwood in place for biodiversity purposes is not a feasible option with regard to surrounding uses. • Significantly Diseased: A tree is significantly diseased and may infect other tree stock or create a safety hazard. (It is noted that many trees show some level of disease, and some trees may live a considerable time with some signs of disease without causing harm.) • Poorly Established: tree is poorly established and is being removed to facilitate planting of a replacement tree that will have potential to have a long-term positive impact in terms of longevity and ecosystem service value. (Given the time frame it takes a tree to reach maturity, delaying the removal process can negatively impact on the city’s overall canopy cover.) • Causing Structural Damage: Instances where a tree that has been proven to be causing significant structural damage that cannot be resolved through reasonable alternative solutions. • Unavoidable Loss to Facilitate Significant Development: Removal of a tree where it has been demonstrated through the planning process that the tree cannot be integrated into the design of significant building/infrastructural works, cannot reasonably be relocated, and whose ecological, health, cultural, and monetary value is assessed as having a relatively lower overall value than the works themselves.
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[ Cork City Council - Tree Strategy ]
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