City's Tree strategy 'crisis'

Leeds opposition LibDem Group fear Labour has lost control of managing the city's trees

"Labour can't see the wood for the trees in Leeds" say city LibDems

Leeds Liberal Democrat councillors have accused Labour-run Leeds City Council of having no clear strategy for the managing the city's trees as they launch a flagship new tree-planting scheme just at the point where the city's forestry management team is on its knees. Cllr Stewart Golton, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group on Leeds City Council said:

"Leeds is one of the greenest city's in the UK, with millions of trees, yet the Council employs just a handful of staff to manage them. When the Council declared a Climate Emergency in 2019 the Liberal Democrat Group warned that the size of the Forestry section couldn't cope with the scale of tree planting and maintenance the city would need, but we were dismissed. Four years on, exhaustion has taken its toll, and after a series of resignations there's virtually noone left on the payroll."

Some residents have been waiting years for work to be done on trees near their homes, as the few council staff left prioritise the treatment of 'high risk' trees likely to cause injury. Cllr Colin Campbell (LibDem, Otley & Yeadon) explained:

"Every week my council email has complaints from residents, mainly elderly and in Council accommodation, about how unmanaged trees are affecting their lives. Some complain of living in perpetual shade, others have cracks in their walls. Roots buckle paving slabs, and low hanging branches block paths and discourage people to go outside. In our parks, trees blown over by wind are left unattended for weeks."

Councillor Golton asked for an update on the number of unfilled posts in the forestry section, after concerns at the length of time in responding to requests for treeworks.

A council officer replied and confirmed that out of the seven strong tree officer team at the beginning of the year, only three now remained:

Cllr Golton added:

"Given that we warned that the forestry team were seriously understaffed back in 2019, to get to this stage the Labour leadership have shown wilful neglect in their responsibilities, to both staff and public, by not resourcing this section appropriately. They were even pulling office based staff from their desks earlier in the year to finish the planting of tree whips on time."

Leeds City Council's policy on planting new trees has proved controversial, with many criticising the Council for over reporting the number of new trees being planted in the city.

"The Council insists on counting every 'whip' it plants as a new tree, despite being the size of a twig, and planted so thickly that only a fraction of them will be lucky enough to develop into a mature specimen. On top of that, a high percentage die within the first year, yet insisting on planting tiny trees allows the Council to claim it plants 200,000 a year. We tried to get the Council to buy fewer more mature trees that could be planted as urban street trees, but this was refused."

The Council has now finally revealed a new partnership to deliver more street trees, but Leeds LibDem councillors are not happy with the scheme, labelling it a 'leafy suburb subsidy', unaffordable to most people in Leeds in a cost of living crisis.

Leeds City Council has partnered up with the Trees for Streets oganisation to create a scheme that allows individuals to pay £150 to plant a tree in a grass verge near their home. Cllr Conrad Hart-Brooke (LibDem, Rothwell) said:

"We are lucky that Leeds is a relatively green city, but some parts are greener than others, and this scheme effectively makes the city's 'green gap' wider by acting as a leafy suburb subsidy. I can't see there being many customers in the city's council estates that have a spare £150 to spend on a tree. As for those living on streets without a grass verge, they don't even get a look in."

The £150 'sponsorship' only accounts for a fraction of the £800 cost of planting the tree. White Rose Forest pay the remaining £650. The Council will charge £450 for planting the tree, hold onto £300 'contingency' in case of vandalism etc, and Trees for Streets will take a £50 fee for each tree planted, on top of the £7000 annual subscription fee the Council will pay to them. Cllr Hart-Brooke continued:

"The White Rose Forest isn't a private charity. It is funded by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whose money is raised through the tax income we all pay. Effectively, the Council is promoting a scheme that offers public subsidy to enhance the neighbourhoods of the 'Haves', and ignores the needs of the 'Have nots' who live in areas with the least number of street trees. They say that this is at no cost to the Council, but they are paying thousands in annual subscription costs for the services of an outside organisation. If we had an inhouse tree planting scheme, the income could at least be invested back into building back up the Forestry team who could look at ways to get street trees planted everywhere in the city."

"It feels like Leeds City Council has learned nothing from the tree-felling saga in Sheffield, and Labour literally can't see the wood for the trees in Leeds. People care about the environment, and they want to live in neighbourhoods with trees on their streets. However, besides planting up acres of whips on any public space it can find, the Council has no clear strategy on how it intends to care for and increase street trees in the city. The current combination of neglect and privatisation is not sustainable and must be addressed."