Tree removals and removal requests for insurance or building damage reasons
Dear Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council,
Trees that are near buildings are often threatened by requests for removal. These requests normally come from homeowners or property owners or their insurance companies after trees are alleged to be causing damage. In many cases these trees pre-date the buildings that are being affected.
I would like to understand more about how this issue affects your local authority and the trees you are responsible for (i.e, you are responsible for maintaining, or are on your land, owned by you, etc).
In particular, I would like to know, over the past 10 years:
- The locations of trees removed by your authority due to property or infrastructure damage, ideally accompanied by their species and the date of removal where possible (locations via GIS data, What3Words, OS coordinates, or addresses as you find easiest)
- How many of/which of these trees were removed due to claims or requests from insurance companies
- How much the council paid to remove each tree (if this can be attributed per removal, or how much the council spent on tree removal each financial year if not)
- How much the council paid out in insurance claims for tree damage to properties (individual claim values preferred, but an aggregate value may be acceptable if the council considers the individual values to be exempt from disclosure)
- The number of trees where removal has been requested, but was either refused, an alternative solution found, or the situation is still ongoing; any breakdown that can be provided (similar to above, e.g, species and location) would be appreciated
Please follow the following principles when considering this request:
- Data at an individual tree level is preferred, but where you consider this can't be disclosed due to commercial or legal agreements (e.g, insurance claims, contractor works) then aggregate data either annually or (worst case) over the whole period may be acceptable
- Some data is better than no data; for example, if data is only available for the last 5 years then that is better than refusing the request
Given this is a request about trees, this request falls under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR) rather than FOI. This carries stricter time limits for responses and fewer exemptions to disclosure. Please treat this as an EIR request.
Yours faithfully,
Lawrence Weetman
Dear Sir / Madam,
REQUEST FOR ACCESS TO INFORMATION
ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION REGULATIONS 2004
The Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council was formed under the Local
Government Act (Northern Ireland) 2014 effective 1 April 2015 and replaces
the former councils of Ballymoney, Coleraine and Limavady Borough Councils
and Moyle District Council. Requests made to the legacy councils since 1
April 2015 are being handled by the Causeway Coast and Glens Borough
Council and duplicate requests made to the legacy councils are being
treated as one request.
Council acknowledges your request for information under the above
legislation and will process your personal data, provided as part of this
request i.e. name and contact details as part of its legal obligation.
Your request is being considered and you will receive the information
requested within the statutory timescale of 20 working days as defined by
the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR), subject to the
information not being exempt, containing reference to a third party or
other provisions within the legislation.
If any of the exemption categories apply, the information will not be
released and you will be informed of this, including your rights of
appeal. Where a public interest test is required, Council will inform you
if the 20 day time scale has to be extended.
Where information requested contains reference to a third party, they may
be consulted prior to a decision being taken on whether or not to release
the information and you will be informed where appropriate.
There may be a fee payable for this information. For requests under FOIA,
Council will not normally charge unless the cost of responding exceeds
£450 based on £25 per hour. Where applicable, the council can choose to
either decline to respond to the request, or to do so only after payment
of a fee. Under the EIR, (subject to legislative exemptions) Council will
normally charge a fee for complying with requests for information based on
a fee of £25 per hour. Where a Fees Notice has been issued and no payment
received within three months of issue, the Council will consider the
request closed. Further information about charges for environmental
information is available at:
[1]https://www.causewaycoastandglens.gov.uk...
Council will endeavour to provide information in the format requested.
However if it is not practicable or it is unreasonable to do so, it will
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If you have any queries about the process, please do not hesitate to
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Please note that replies are subject to release under the Freedom of
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Yours faithfully,
Aileen Devlin
Policy & Community Planning
Business Support Assistant
Email: [3][email address]
[4]Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council
[5]www.causewaycoastandglens.gov.uk
Good afternoon,
Please see attached correspondence for your attention.
Kind regards
Romana
Romana Khaoury
Information Governance Officer
Email: [1][email address]
[2]Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council
[3]www.causewaycoastandglens.gov.uk
Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council processes personal information in
compliance with the Data Protection Act 2018. To learn more, you can
review our privacy notice at
[4]http://www.causewaycoastandglens.gov.uk/....
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