Questions on Notice
To deal with any questions on notice from Members of the Council, in the order in which they have been received.
A period of up to 15 minutes is allocated for the asking and answering of questions. This may be extended at the discretion of the Chairman with the agreement of the majority of those present.
Minutes:
Question submitted by Councillor M. Thompson
“In the last full council meeting the Labour Group moved a motion for the council to replace every tree it cut down with 6 saplings. The motion was rejected because of lack of a business case. The Labour Group do not believe that such (small) gestures, which help reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to help combat the enhanced Greenhouse Effect, require a business case. However, in view of the above, please can the relevant portfolio holder answer the following question, to help with the so-called business case:
If a = average price of a sapling, b = average number of trees felled per annum by Bromsgrove District Council and c = 6ab.
What is c?”
The Leader referred the question to the Portfolio Holder who had answered this question at the last Council meeting.
The Portfolio Holder for Planning advised that he had previously carried out some research with regard to this question and had looked at various nursery suppliers who provided Whip or Bareroot plants which were small i.e. up to 60cm tall. Due to their very low costs, far less time and effort was required to get them established therefore the potential cost of plant failure was also very low.
The Portfolio Holder added that he had randomly chosen some nursery sites online to look at prices for this type of planting stock and in general they range from around 90p - £2.22 per tree – normally based on ordering a multiple bundle of say 10 – 20 at a time. Each one of these would probably require a protective planting tube and stake at approx. £2 per tree. For the planting of say 6 – 10 trees on a single site he estimated a requirement for one member of staff for 1 hour maximum at a salary cost of £10 per hour plus a vehicle to travel to the location. As is clearly evident this type of planting is very low cost.
However, if there were any increase in the size of tree to be planted then it was expected the cost wold increase exponentially – larger Standard size trees for example could cost several hundreds of pounds each and the aftercare costs were also much higher. The appropriateness of the type, size and location of any tree planting would need to be evaluated and a general cost was very difficult to accurately quantify, as each site would most likely have different requirements and restrictions.
Apart from half a dozen young trees that came down as part of the Sanders Park cycle path scheme (which were taken down by WCC rather than ourselves) the Portfolio Holder did not think that the Council had felled any trees in the last financial year – some were pruned but not felled and he added that Leisure would have had around 400 new trees planted at one of the Bromsgrove allotment sites.
Questions Submitted by Councillor P. McDonald
“Would the Chairman please inform me ... view the full minutes text for item 47