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Response by the Cabinet Member: Thank you for your questions. These are technical and operational issues and the assurances I have received from officers are as follows [your questions are repeated and the responses are shown as bullet points]. In response to my request for evidence to justify the extent of the clearance undertaken, you have basically just said that because of the severity of the risk, that you had to act before obtaining detailed studies. If this is the case, you must have obtained expert guidance to justify why such prompt and drastic action was necessary. Please can you release this expert guidance that warranted bypassing the usual documentation that such a scheme would require and the qualifications of the person that gave this advice? · Along with Natural Resources Wales visiting the site before the licence was issued, pre-work checks were done by Iwan Meirion, a Chartered Forester and woodland consultant producing a 35-page document detailing all safety and environment checks. Can you also explain why the council allowed to woodland to reach this stage of needing such drastic emergency action when you have known about maintenance issues here for many years? Although we have had issues over many years · Over the past 14 years the Council undertaken works maintaining and responding to reports regarding Bull Dingle. In spite of these works, such was the condition of the trees and growth, continuing with reactive and one-off jobs was no longer environmentally or economically sustainable. This was a consideration in determining how best to address the risks and challenges of Bull Dingle to make sure that for the long term it remained a sustainable and manageable woodland area in Welshpool. Regular tree inspections for Housing Services are focused on trees in public open spaces, such as grassed and communal areas in housing estates, to manage risks to passers-by and those using the grassed and communal areas. Regarding my question about the need to clear before 1st Sept and asking for the correspondence between PCC and Scottish Power, you have again just said that the work was urgent and Scottish Power required this timescale, and have given no evidence that you robustly defended the need to undertake this work outside the bird nesting season to Scottish Power. · Initial with contact Scottish Power (SP) took place in late 2024 with the hope of being able have works completed before March 2025. With the level of planning needed to drop the power lines and supply homes with back-up generator SP the only availability was July. Any later start would have seen contractors potentially working in bad weather, high winds and the brook flooding which would have presented too great a risk to the teams working on the site. Please can you release the correspondence between PCC and Scottish Power showing that PCC robustly argued that the work needed to take place after 1st Sept, and the justification Scottish Power gave for why this could not be so. There is no reason I can see for us not being willing for this correspondence to be in the public domain? · Undertaking the works in the autumn/winter months would have presented too many risks to the teams working on the site (please see above). I note that your response to my question about what engagement with the community had happened prior to the felling, that you have cited two statements, but the second of these was after the felling and only done in response to the public outcry. The first statement implies that it is only the diseased trees that are to be removed, and therefore is very misleading. Do you accept that this communication was misleading and can the council issue an apology to the community and admit that PCC messed up seriously here? · The two letters sent out prior to any works starting clearly advised that the Council would be undertaking tree clearance and management at Bull Dingle. The local community are also now concerned that because of the complete removal of trees, there is now risk of slippage and heave in the ground because of the reduction in the root systems in the soil. Can you confirm that you anticipated this being a potential problem and that you commissioned a study to understand the effect of removal of these trees, and can this be shared with the local community? · Short term (two years) the roots left in the ground will provide soil cohesion. The Council will be replanting late October early November which will reintroduce new and growing root systems.
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