Cork City Council Tree Strategy

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.

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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