Trees are a wonderful addition to your local environment, whether you live in the country or in town, but they can also cause problems.
We have to regularly inspect all the trees we own to make sure they are safe and healthy. Sometimes we need to cut them down if they are diseased, or likely to be dangerous to people who go near them, but this is not a decision we take lightly.
The council's draft Tree and Woodland Strategy sets out a proposal on how St Edmundsbury will manage its trees and woodlands in the future. It also sets out clearly what the council will, and will not, do when people call us with questions about trees, or want work carried out on them.
We get around 800 queries about trees per year, most of them by people wanting us to trim trees which are near their properties.
The strategy sets out who has what responsibility (whether that's St Edmundsbury. or the county council, or a private owner) and the procedure we would follow if people believe a tree is damaging their property, plus how we will respond to queries (about overhanging branches, for example, or possible root damage). It also lists the various diseases trees can suffer from, and what treatment these would need, if any.
