Issue details

The Council’s Tree Maintenance Services (TMS) term contract has ended in relation to urban tree management.

Our approved contractor provided services up to the end of the contract (31/03/23) but has struggled with the provision of sufficient capacity to carry out pruning works post-Covid. This is a national issue, with skilled people leaving tree management for other industries / professions.

Extending the contract period with our approved contractor was not feasible due to these capacity issues and so short-term rolling agreements were established with local contractors.

It was not possible to instigate the Council’s procurement process to award a new TMS contract starting in April 2023 due to ongoing negotiations with HCC about the management of their highway trees by DBC. The decision whether to continue to provide tree management within Dacorum for HCC would significantly affect the award of the TMS contract in terms of contract value, scope and technical specification. It was therefore decided to delay the TMS procurement process until HCC negotiations had been finalised. This is expected to be within 3 months when the specification can be finalised and the temporary arrangements.

Now that these discussions are in their final phase, documentation is now being prepared by the Trees & Woodlands and Procurement teams for the Council’s next TMS contract.    

Our ability to issue works to a contractor outside of a formalised contract is financially limited. Prior PFH approval has enabled the Trees & Woodlands team to issue an increased volume of safety works to interim contractors, but available capacity within the £75k financial limit is now quite low.

PFH approval is now required to extend the use of additional contractor capacity until the start of a new TMS contract. 

Two existing approved suppliers are providing tree work services to the Council but it is requested that the financial limitations on their use is relaxed. The two companies are;

Foremost Tree Surgeons Limited, and

Roderick Wilson Tree Surgery Limited