It is rather odd that a Brent Labour councillor has to resort to a Freedom of Information request to his own Council about their performance regarding Freedom of Information requests. This is what Cllr Dan Filson did on Thursday. He got a response the next day which is amazing, However he did get fobbed off like the rest of us often are:
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I am still waiting for the answer to an FoI request made on November 28th 2014. I hasd heard that the maintenance of large trees had been left out of the Publc Realm contract in which Veolia took over parks maintenance. It had been suggested to me that this was an oversight that would result in additional expenditure.
This is the response to my intial request:
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I am still waiting for the answer to an FoI request made on November 28th 2014. I hasd heard that the maintenance of large trees had been left out of the Publc Realm contract in which Veolia took over parks maintenance. It had been suggested to me that this was an oversight that would result in additional expenditure.
This is the response to my intial request:
1. State who is responsible for safety checks, maintenance, felling and replacementMy follow-up which is still awaiting a response:
of trees in Brent's parks, open spaces and cemeteries.
The Contractor is only responsible for minor tree works which can be carried out
whilst working at ground level. The Council is responsible for major tree works.
Grounds maintenance staff from Veolia and the Council’s monitoring officers
(horticulture) would look at trees when they are working in the park or carrying out
monitoring visits. The Coucnil would then engage specialist contractors to carry out
the major works.
1. Is the cost of major tree works by a sub-contractor included in
the Public Realm budget out-sourced to Veolia?
2. If not, what is the expected annual cost of this sub-contractedBREAKING NEWS: Having posted this article at the weekend I got this answer about 9.30am this morning:
work (recognising it might vary considerably due to major weather
events such as storms)?
1: No
2: The Council’s street trees maintenance contractor is Gristwood & Toms. The budget for street tree maintenance works was £500,000 in 2014/15, but this is expected to fall to £450,000 in 2015/16.