The Committee is asked to note the amendments made to Swale Borough Council’s Tree Policy following their first review.

The Cabinet Member for Environment and Rural Affairs, the Head of Commissioning, Environment and Leisure, the Leisure and Technical Services Manager and the Greenspaces Manager have been invited to attend for this item.

The Chairman welcomed the Cabinet Member for Environment and Rural Affairs, the Head of Commissioning, Environment and Leisure, the Leisure and Technical Services Manager and the Greenspaces Manager to the meeting.

The Cabinet Member for Environment and Rural Affairs introduced the report.  He drew attention, that as a result of the suggestions made by Members when the Tree Policy was considered at the Policy Development Review Committee (PDRC) meeting in November 2018, the Draft Tree Policy had been updated.

Members considered the report and the following points were made:

·        the paragraph on Hedgerows (page 7) was not strong or specific enough, the Policy needed to protect ancient hedgerows;

·        how were ancient hedgerows identified?;

·        lack of information on how Swale Borough Council (SBC) responded to Tree Preservation Order (TPO) applications;

·        thanked Officers and welcomed the updated policy;

·        suggested re-wording “…..by the developer who paid the Council a ‘commuted sum’ ’’ in the final paragraph of page 7;

·        suggested including Councillors as well as staff and public in the first bullet point under ’Who Inspects’ on page 9;

·        suggested adding ‘unless urgent’ after ‘…programmed tree works’ on the final bullet point at the bottom of page 13;

·        consider a Press Release on who to contact to report damaged or diseased trees;

·        the ‘Community support’ heading on page 18 should be titled ‘Advice for public’; 

·        suggested including a link to Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ Magic Maps application which provided geographical information on the natural environment or a link to information on veteran trees;

·        the importance of ancient woodlands should be stressed throughout the whole document;

·        who carried out the tree inspections and did it impact on staff resource?; and

·        information on pages 14 and 15 was confusing and needed to be clearer about how residents or Swale Borough Council could act.

In the discussion that followed, the Cabinet Member for Environment and Rural Affairs advised that the information on enforcement for removing ancient hedgerows was included in the document, and further information was signposted.  The Head of Commissioning, Environment and Leisure added that there was a crossover into Planning Legislation and he would discuss with the Head of Planning Services the relevant information that needed to be included in the document.  

The Cabinet Member for Environment and Rural Affairs said that follow-up action from TPO applications was dependent on an individual circumstance and incidents were referred to the Council’s Tree Officer.

In response to a Member’s request that officers’ direct phone numbers were included in the document, the Cabinet Member for Environment and Rural Affairs explained that it was more efficient for calls to be logged with Customer Services.  The Head of Commissioning, Environment and Leisure added that staff in Customer Services had received updated training on responding to tree enquiries as part of the recent change in software system.

The Green Spaces Manager advised that a combination of contractors and Council staff carried out the tree inspections, depending on staff workloads.  In the discussion that followed, the Leisure and Technical Services Manager explained that the developing Policy brought clarity in how trees were managed, which might help reduce the number of enquiries.  The Head of Commissioning, Environment and Leisure confirmed that the Policy could be delivered on the current, existing resource.   The Chairman suggested that if Members had concerns over staff resources in satisfying the Policy, Scrutiny Committee could consider a review on it.

The Head of Commissioning, Environment and Leisure thanked Members of the Committee for their input and agreed to consider including the suggestions made, in the Policy.

The Chairman thanked the Cabinet Member for Environment and Rural Affairs, the Head of Commissioning, Environment and Leisure, the Leisure and Technical Services Manager and the Green Spaces Manager for their attendance.