Southampton's tree operational management system is known as STORMS. This is a system of tree inspection and management for trees owned by Southampton City Council.
It is a proactive system for managing the risk of trees causing injury or damage as a result of their failure; it does not address other forms of damage that may be caused by trees, for example subsidence or root damage. The system aims to manage risk effectively and provide an audit trail and history. It therefore enables actions and inspections to be carried out according to the potential risk of a tree.
STORMS incorporates tree risk management, city tree maintenance, tree planting programme and emergency response. STORMS separately assesses the risk and hazard of trees. The risk is location based and is the likelihood of a hazard occurring. The hazard is linked to the individual tree and has the potential to cause harm.
The city is divided into risk zones that are defined according to usage. Within these zones, all individual trees are assessed to identify the hazard they may present. The software then produces inspection schedules based on the risk zone and hazard assessment. Any work through these inspections will be prioritised according to urgency. Further detailed information can be found in the full document, STORMS operating principles and standards which is available from the trees team.
The tree team deals with approximately 2500 council tree enquiries each year. It is essential that tree works are prioritised to ensure that the number one concern of public safety is addressed. Any council tree that is immediately dangerous is considered an emergency and dealt with straight away.
Requests for work on council owned trees are categorised according to the traffic light trees system. The process takes account of how urgent the work is. The categories are as follows:
Red - tree needs urgent attention and works will be carried out within 12 weeks.
Amber - tree needs attention to stop it becoming dangerous and will be worked on within 6 months.
Green - tree works are not essential but are carried out as part of the council's good neighbour policy. Generally green category trees require works such as removing branches that significantly overhang gardens. Only 10% of all work is available for these works so only selected green category works will be carried out within a maximum of 18 months of the enquiry.
Please note that the council has limited resources and there are some works that the council is unable to undertake, these are:
Trees affecting television reception
Trees obstructing light
Fruit falling from trees
Trees obstructing views
Tree works that are agreed will be carried out to British Standards and current Arboricultural best practice, we will not therefore "lop" or "top" trees as this will often result in profuse regrowth and can make the tree susceptible to decay.
Southampton City Council
