The additional funding is sought to help reduce the number of tree re-inspections across the LGA.

Since increasing operational funding for tree management in urban areas the total number of trees included on the works list has decreased from 966 in 2017 to 797 this year.

A report to the October meeting said public tree management in urban areas continues to be a highly visible and a critical council priority for the community.

Council's tree management team comprises a senior arborist, an arborist, an operational team leader and two tree workers who carry out visual tree assessments to identify trees requiring attention.

These works are allocated a priority rating from 1 - 6 to identify their risk to the community and to determine the order of works to be actioned.

Works are then undertaken by council staff and external contractors appointed as preferred suppliers on council's Tree Maintenance and Management Services tender panel.

Council previously recognised the need to increase financial resources allocated to addressing the tree list backlog and an additional $96,000 was allocated during the 2017/18 financial year to allow for more high risk tree works to be completed.

This additional budget has since been embedded in the operational budget for tree management.

However, a bid for additional funds of $100,000 for tree management in the development of 2020/21 operational budget was unsuccessful due to competing resource demands.

There are 797 tree maintenance tasks listed for works to be undertaken by council. Of those, 11 trees are ranked have a priority one rating while a further 343 a priority two rating.

In addition to listed tree works, tree management staff have responded to 204 additional tasks, branch or whole tree failure, in the 12 months to October 2020. Most of these tasks resulted from high wind events in November 2019 and March 2020.

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