Trees owned by council

(a) Do you know how many individual trees the council own or are responsible for?
A full survey has never been carried out; therefore we do not hold this information.
(b) If so, how many? (Please exclude woodland/forest type areas from the answer).
A full survey has never been carried out; therefore we do not hold this information.
(c) If not, please give an approximate number.
It is not possible to provide even an approximate figure due to the sheer numbers involved. It may be possible to provide estimates for specific locations.
(d) If possible please split the number between highway, housing, authority land/buildings, and park areas.
A full survey has never been carried out; therefore we do not hold this information.
(e) During financial year beginning April 2015 – to end March 2016 how much money did the council spend (£ excluding VAT) on tree work activities such as pruning, felling, and bracing/support.
We have identified a total of £309,150.81 spent in the time period specified. There may have been additional expenditure by other teams but from our preliminary assessment, we estimate that answering this question in full would exceed the appropriate costs limit under section 12 of the Freedom of information Act 2000. This is currently £450 or 18 hours of officer time.
(f) During financial year beginning April 2015 – to end March 2016 how much did the council spend (£ excluding VAT) on tree planting activities.
A total of £40,221 has been identified as spent in the time period specified. There may have been additional expenditure by other teams but it is not possible to extract and collate that information without exceeding the 18 hour time limit, therefore we are applying Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act, as per the answer to the previous question.
(g) During financial year beginning April 2015 – to end March 2016 how much money did the council spend (£ excluding VAT) on arboricultural consultancy activities such as tree surveying, decay detection, subsidence investigation, etc.
A total of £60, 554.50
(h) During financial year beginning April 2015 – to end March 2016 how many authority owned trees were felled?
We do not hold this information in a format that could be queried in less than the 18 hour limit specified by Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act. The information is most likely held in different ways by multiple teams.
(i) During financial year beginning April 2015 – to end March 2016 how many trees were planted by the authority?
67,919
Please note: between October 2012 and March 2016 approximately 64,000 trees were planted as part of the construction of the South Devon Highway. We do not hold more detailed information on which specific year they were planted.
(j) Across all departments, based on a normal working week how many persons are employed by the authority with responsibility for the management of trees such as; managers, tree/ arboricultural officers; surveyors? Please include any persons employed through PFI contracts servicing the authority. When answering please detail how many persons in which departments, the job role and how many hours per week, on average, are dedicated to tree management.
Service Number of employees

(k) If persons are employed through PFI contracts, please confirm how many?
None – minor component of PFI School’s Site manager function only.