Council offers tree care contract as costs mount

Contractors are being sought to look after Sheffield's trees and woodlands, as council costs rise due to an increase in pests and storm damage.

Sheffield City Council is offering a £5m, four-year contract to manage maintenance of the 2.7m trees in the city's parks, woodlands and cemeteries.

It said there had been a significant increase in the amount of essential safety work, and it had to tender the service as spending was now "well above" thresholds.

The council noted street trees were not included as they were managed by Streets Ahead and Amey via a private finance initiative (PFI) agreement.

A report by the council said: "The introduction of new pests and diseases such as ash dieback and the increased regularity of storms due to climate change has led to a significant increase in the volume and associated cost of carrying out essential safety-related remedial work.

"The council will consider the current and future volume of work, existing timescales and to ensure that emergency situations including storm events are adequately covered."

The council previously highlighted ash dieback as a potentially serious drain on its budget.

It estimated between 13,800 and 24,786 ash trees on council land would need to be removed because of the disease, and the average cost of removing each tree was around £400.

The council estimated the cost of removing infected trees that posed a risk was likely to be between £5.5m and £9.9m.

The highly infectious disease is caused by a fungus which makes trees unpredictably brittle and is badly affecting the Peak District and northern counties.

The council report said: "There are an estimated 250,000 ash trees in Sheffield, the majority of which are on public land.

"The only way to remove the risk posed by badly affected trees in public places is to fell them.

"We are surveying across the city to monitor the spread of the disease and are increasing inspections to cover sites identified as high priority - those with high numbers of ash, or large ash, near roads, schools or other well-used areas."

Since 2000 the council has planted 290,000 trees across Sheffield.

It said it had made a "head start on restoration", but it was vital to replace lost trees.

Councillors will discuss the new tree contract at a meeting on Monday 3 February.

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