Resources and Governance
This chapter explores one of the five Strategic Objectives for tree management: resourcing and governance of tree management. It sets out current priorities within this topic area and explores where action should be taken.
What is it?
In order to successfully deliver its arboricultural services, the Council needs to have appropriate governance, organisational infrastructure, systems, and resources in place. This includes a defined organisational structure, a sufficient number of staff or contractors with clearly defined roles and responsibilities, and adequate funding streams.
How does this support the vision?
Proper governance and resourcing will allow the Council to work effectively in support of all elements of the vision. In particular, proactive and planned work is more likely to be delivered efficiently, budget planning and better forecasting of demands helps to avoid backlogs or problems and reducing friction will get the best from people.
What are the Council's strategic objectives?
These are the key deliverables for the Council in this topic area:
Table 18 - Strategic Objectives for resources and governance
| Ref | Strategic Objectives |
|---|---|
| RG1 | Review and update existing governance systems and structures, data handling, line management and internal service provision to ensure they are fit for purpose. |
| RG2 | Develop a strategy for maintaining adequate staffing levels to successfully deliver the Council's four core arboricultural functions. Define all roles and establish minimum competencies. |
| RG3 | Develop a framework for ensuring that the arboricultural team has a defined budget in place for the management of trees in the existing treescape and the development of a comprehensive programme of new tree planting. |
| RG4 | Develop a new publicly accessible mapping platform for tree related information. |
| RG5 | Update the Council website to include the most up to date information and advice regarding trees in line with this Strategy. |
| RG6 | Supplement core functions with parallel systems using alternative forms of governance to organise, fund and/or deliver tree planting and management in partnership with other sectors and organisations. |
| RG7 | Produce detailed action plans for each Strategic Objective, identifying what further information is needed, what actions will occur, and specifying responsibility, timescales and resource requirements. |
Arboriculture team structure
The Council's arboriculture team is within the Parks and Streetscene department under the Communities and Environment directorate. It is responsible for managing all trees located on Council owned land, with the exception of trees located on Council land which is leased out. All essential tree works are carried out by the arboriculture team, or via external contractors where required.
The arboriculture team provides advice to other departments across the Council. Planning advice relating to trees is provided by the arboriculture team in response to planning applications, pre-apps and complaints from the public, and in relation to TPO trees or trees within conservation areas.
The Council will develop a system for providing advice to other departments to ensure that the arboriculture team receives appropriate funds for this service.
The arboriculture team will deal with all enquiries, complaints and service requests relating to trees. The Council will develop a system to ensure there is effective communication of requests between central systems and the arboriculture team.
Leaseholders
The Council's Property department leases out land to external leaseholders. Where there are trees located on Council owned land which has been leased out, tree risk management becomes a responsibility of the leaseholder.
The Council will require leaseholders to manage trees in line with this Strategy and enforcement will be carried out to ensure they are meeting their obligations.
Planning
Planning is discussed in the planning and development section.
Tree works
visit the Tree works page for information on this section.
External contractors and consultants
Where the Council requires an external supplier to undertake arboricultural services they will be required to meet a set of minimum standards.
Work by external suppliers will be administered by the arboriculture team and delivered through existing budgets or billed to the land-owning department for which they are undertaken.
Digital infrastructure and mapping
In order to efficiently collect and store information relating to trees, the Council will use a tree risk management software system. Where there is potential to integrate elements of the tree risk management system into the Council's overall asset management system, this will be done.
Information about trees will be stored centrally and made readily accessible to those who need it.
The Council will ensure that the software system it uses for tree risk management will be compatible with the Council's GIS systems to map out recorded trees and store relevant information.
Intranet and public mapping
The Council will develop an internal mapping system which allows all surveyed trees to be accurately plotted and survey information to be stored in one place. The site will be live so that it automatically updates every time a new programme of inspections is undertaken. This will help to build an accurate picture of the treescape as it develops over time.
The Council will also develop a user-friendly public facing tree mapping system which will provide the public with tree related information such as TPOs, conservation areas, trees where a problem has been reported, trees where works have been undertaken and trees where future works are proposed.
Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
GIS provides a way to map location data and record descriptive information in one place. This is especially useful when considering a large data set with wide spatial distribution such as a tree population. The data that held in this way can be analysed in a variety of ways to develop a better understanding of the treescape and how to manage it to maximise the benefits it delivers.
The Council will update its GIS software so that it is able to develop high quality, user friendly internal and public facing tree mapping systems. The Council will ensure it has the correct in-house GIS expertise to develop and manage the required mapping systems.
Skills
All roles within the Council's arboriculture team will have defined minimum qualifications to ensure that employees are properly trained for the jobs they will be undertaking. This will mean that the Council will have the correct resources for the work that needs to be carried out and will minimise the requirement for in-house training.
Staff roles and responsibilities will be defined clearly in writing. Staff members will understand their role and will be aware of their position within the wider team. Staff members will also be familiar with this Strategy and how the objectives will be delivered through the work of the arboriculture team.
Responsibility for the delivery of actions and objectives within this Strategy will be allocated to appropriate staff members. Tasks required for delivery will be clearly defined and understood.
Funding
The Council will ensure that the arboriculture team has adequate funding in place to successfully deliver its work streams, including the creation of a dedicated budget for trees. Alongside the departmental budget, tree work will be covered by a range of different funding options such as service level agreements with other Council departments to undertake tree works and fees from commercial services provided to private landowners.
Where the arboriculture team provides services, either to other Council departments or to private individuals and organisations, the Council will use a standardised contract to ensure that a systematic approach is taken.
The Council will explore options for grants to help with tree planting targets and will consider developing a tree sponsorship scheme where private individuals can donate towards tree planting.
Share this page
