Trees

We have over 300,000 trees in public spaces, gardens and parks that are looked after by us. Our team maintains the trees in line with our tree strategy.

We maintain trees on the highway for safety reasons and assess risk as part of our programme of tree inspections. We focus on the trees that our team have assessed as most likely to cause harm or damage.

We will investigate when the tree is:

blocking access
dead, dying or dangerous
damaging property or surfaces due to root growth
covering road, street signs and street lights
being vandalised – wilful damage

We will not cut back or fell council owned trees when:

it is causing tv interference
it is encroaching your property with no harm
it is blocking light to your property
there are nesting birds or bats roosting
there are problems with leaves and sap

Dropped seeds, leaves and other matter

We will not remove any tree because it is dropping seeds, leaves, pine cones or other matter unless the tree is dead, dying or diseased.

Report it

Response times

Depending on the urgency of the report, these are our usual response times:

immediate (within two hours) - trees blocking access or in imminent danger of causing harm/damage to persons or property
urgent (within 24 hours or the next working day) - trees partially blocking access or considered a potential risk to persons or property
high priority (10 working days) - trees that are not urgent but have been identified as a potential safety concern
medium priority (within three months) - trees that are low risk - work is required and will be programmed as part of our maintenance schedule