PKC invests £2m to treat tree disease

£1.9m budget to be spent on tree surgeon contracts

- KATHRYN ANDERSON

Perth and Kinross councillors have unanimously agreed a £2.2 million strategy to tackle ash dieback.

Perhaps surprisingly the council responsible for Big Tree Country does not have its own tree surgeons and proposes to spend £1.9m on contractors removing at-risk trees.

While a budget of £125,000 has been allocated from the council's revenue budget for 2025/26, further budget decisions will need to be approved to complete the five-year programme.

Ash is the third most common broadleaftree in the UK and a paper - put before councillors this week - reported current estimates are that “up to 90 per cent of ash trees will die from the disease”.

On Wednesday, April 30 PKC's Climate Change and Sustainability Committee approved a strategy which will prioritise the highest risk trees first.

The committee's convener SNP councillor Richard Watters described it as being an “efficient and effective method of pro-actively dealing with the problem”.

Perth and Kinross Council (PKC) has a legal responsibility to take action to prevent or minimise the risk of personal injury or property damage from trees on council-owned land.

The local authority currently manages around 30,000 trees on its land-1900 of which are ash. It is also estimated around 7,500 roadside trees may be affected. It was agreed PKC will work with landowners to take appropriate action, where required, to maintain road safety.

Ash dieback is an airborne fungal disease, which - as it progresses - causes the wood to become brittle resulting in branches falling from the tree. In the most severe cases, the trees will die.