Issue details

This report sets out the results of the detailed review of the Council Trees Service and provides options for the future delivery of the service.

The Council is facing considerable financial pressures, worsened by the impact of COVID-19.  Alongside this, our Trees Service had experienced a number of budget overspends.

Therefore, a review of the Council Trees Service was recently conducted, with the aim of identifying what options could be available to reduce the cost of the service whilst continuing to offer a good quality tree management function.

A Systems Thinking (Vanguard) approach was applied to the service, alongside legal and financial analysis and comparisons with the approaches adopted by other local Councils.

The results of the review and proposals for the future provision of the service are outlined in this report, alongside a proposed level of expenditure which reflects the increasing stock of trees that the Council now actively manages as well as incorporating options identified to reduce areas of spend.

To mitigate any future overspends it is also proposed that a full review of the Council’s Planning Obligations Supplementary Planning Document for the Borough of Fareham, excluding Welborne (SPD), takes place to allow the Council to recover the cost of tree maintenance when adopting land.  The Executive is invited to note that an increased maintenance contribution for adopting land containing trees which will require active management by the Council upon adoption will be introduced with immediate effect.