Overgrown trees posing ‘serious risk’ in Offaly in ‘age of environmentalists’

Overgrown trees are posing a “serious risk” in County Offaly in the “age of environmentalists”, a council meeting has heard.

The issue was raised by Independent Ireland councillor Fergus McDonnell at the February meeting of the Edenderry Municipal District.

Cllr McDonnell said: “Regarding the maintenance and management of trees and public spaces, again, this is gathering momentum.

“I think there has to be a real in depth look by the SBC at residential estates and the way they’re designed and what is included in them from design and planning.

“The county council will end up taking them in charge at some point in time and it becomes a burden on the taxpayer.

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“We’re all for a green environment but as I said before, trees are being put in place in all areas of the town and county and they’re just left to grow.

“There’s no maintenance, no management unless they become a serious risk. So we need to get clarity on that going forward and a timeframe.”

He continued by saying that the trees are blocking daylight and during storms, pose a risk of falling on private property.

“Trees are blocking daylight which are very close to private property, notwithstanding they’re structurally sound.

“There are people up there who can’t even manage to put solar panels on their house, such is the overhanging coverage of trees.

“There’ll be an issue over trying to do anything about solving that problem because from the environmental aspect of it, you shouldn’t cut a perfectly healthy tree.

“That’s a problem that somebody’s going to have to make a decision on.

“On top of that, there are trees very tight to the roofs of private dwellings. If they come down, it not just damages property, it damages life.”

In response to Cllr McDonnell, Senior Executive Engineer Rory Moore said that the council is following a guidance document which is based on best international practice.

He outlined a recent survey that was carried out which looked to compile a list of overgrown trees that needed to have work done on them.

Mr Moore continued: “We appointed an arborist. That arborist prepared his report and that report got submitted in the last couple of weeks.
“We finally got a chance to look at it and out of broad figures, out of all the trees that were assessed, he only identified that about 30 per cent [of trees] that he inspected needed action.

“We then went to a tender to get a tree surgeon to price the works involved in doing those 30 per cent of trees and it’s over €70,000.

“There’s no dedicated budget for tree management so we’re going to have to try as an area to try and see where we can come up [with money] to tackle some of those.”

He added that while he would love to be able to deal with every tree, budget restraints mean that won’t be possible.

He also highlighted the environmental reasons why certain trees can’t be cut down.

“I know people are afraid after the recent storms but if the expert is telling us that a tree is healthy, we can’t be cutting that down at the brow in the age of environmentalists or otherwise.

“Even if trees are cut down, we’re meant to replace the tree we take down with more trees. If you took down a mature tree, it could take up to 100 trees to have the same carbon footprint in the first five years.

“Even the likes of solar panels or people complaining about the leaves on their lawn and all these different issues, are not a reason enough to cut down a tree.”

Mr Moore concluded by saying he couldn’t go against the advice of the guidance document or any tree expert.