Hundreds of trees have been lost across Brighton and Hove to a fungal disease known as ash dieback.
Next week councillors are being asked to adopt an ash dieback action plan and to review a draft tree planting plan to replace and extend tree cover across Brighton and Hove.
It follows the felling of hundreds of ash trees in Stanmer Park and Withdean Park after the disease left them “fragile and dangerous”.
Proposals for tackling the problems have been included in a report to Brighton and Hove City Council’s Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee.
The report said that the council employed a full-time ash dieback co-ordinator last November to identify where the disease was taking hold and to arrange replanting.
It said: “The council will be removing trees which may look healthy to the public and some residents may be concerned by the works but all trees have been surveyed by a professional arboriculturist.
“The disease is not only affecting ash trees in Brighton and Hove but also killing ash throughout the country, with the worst affected areas being in the south east where major works have already taken place, removing hundreds of thousands of trees.
“This approach allows the council to effectively manage the risk to public safety posed by diseased ash trees across the city via a programme of large-scale tree felling.
“It also ensures the regeneration of council-owned woodlands and areas with ash trees affected by the disease via an extensive replanting and ongoing maintenance programme to improve tree species diversity, resilience and general biodiversity.”
Officials have proposed one-off funding of £600,000 to help deal with the problem.
The council has also been tackling elm disease. Over the past six years, Brighton and Hove has lost an average of 189 elms a year. The worst year was 2020, with 496 elms felled.
A draft tree planting plan going before the committee should diversify Brighton and Hove’s woodlands and increase the tree canopy, the report said.
The plan would be funded with £1 million from the council’s “carbon neutral fund” and £230,000 from a government agency known as the Forestry Commission.
In 2021-22, the council planted 425 trees and 2,530 whips – or slender shoots.
The report said: “The council intends to maintain this level of new tree planting annually as a minimum but, as more land is identified for woodland planting, the numbers of trees planted could greatly exceed this.
“Over and above this, we will be replanting where we have lost trees to ash dieback disease.
“It should be noted that as new tree planting increases, resources are needed to care for them and ensure they thrive. This will need to be factored in future resource allocation.”
The Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee is due to meet at Hove Town Hall at 4pm on Tuesday (21 June). The meeting is scheduled to be webcast on the council website.
Pleased that the council is planting trees to replace those killed by Ash dieback and Dutch Elm diseases.
But will it really take £1m of our money in the council’s “carbon neutral fund” to support planting of new trees! How many trees are the intending to plant and how much carbon will these trees be absorbing by 2030?
It takes trees about 20 years to grow to maturity and then each will absorb about 20kg per year. As it is only now 8 years until 2030 when the council promised to make the city carbon neutral then this planning cannot help until 2042?
The 3,000 trees per year they intend to plant equates, therefore, to sixty tonnes of carbon being absorbed each year, or about the carbon footprint of 6 residents, so hardly a major benefit, and is this a good return on investment for £1.25m including money from the Forestry Commission?
Does it really cost over £400 to plant a tree in the UK? The National Trust is charging £5 per tree, and http://www.ecologi.com charges £4.45 per tree in the UK. Is someone making a lot of money out of the council?
Or is this part of the plan to offset any of the city’s remaining carbon emissions in 2030?
If so, what is in scope for being carbon neutral? Is it just the estimated 2% of emissions that are attributable to the council? Or are they intending to offset the CO2 from residents, businesses, and visitors as well?
Where are the new trees for the whitehawk Community?
A massively Green area which the council seem to be ignoring. you goto woodingdean and they have new trees all over village.
We was promised planting last winter and that never happened.