Response times

Response times are affected by the nature of the problem reported. The council aims to respond to specific problems items within the following times:

Type of problem	Response time
Emergency Examples of emergencies are: report that someone is felling/pruning a protected tree covered by a Tree Preservation Order or within a Conservation area report that someone is felling/pruning a street/park tree report that tree is imminently 'dangerous' and about to collapse onto public land/highway/adjoining private property allegation that the council's contractor was acting improperly/causing damage by virtue of their activity etc	Emergency inspections will be carried out within two hours of a call.
Priority Examples of priority problems are: allegation that the tree is causing harm/distress/non life-threatening damage	Priority inspections are carried out within five working days.
Routine Examples of routine problems are: request for pruning service such as overgrown tree, low branches request for service from council department anything that does not fall into the two categories above	Routine inspections are carried out within 3-5 weeks. If work is identified during the inspection, instructions are given to a contractor who has between 4-6 weeks to carry it out.

If a tree officer is not available to respond to a phone enquiry they will contact the caller within one working day to gather more information and indicate the proposed course of action.

Out of hours service

The tree service operates an emergency 'call-out' system. Out of business hours callers will be directed to the call-out service and if the problem is deemed a hazard to the public they will contact the tree service's contractors who will visit the site.