I think Scott has hit the nail on the head in that if you've got more money
you have more opportunities, whether that's owning a race horse or having
enough land to plant a few trees, and maintain them. Another key point that
Scott makes is that it would be pretty fair to say that most people would
benefit from the specific attributes of trees irrespective of level of
snootiness.
So with local authorities having responsibility for protecting trees the
recognition of tree amenity will be equally applied and so TPOs will be
proportional to tree numbers, overall. Lets say 0.1% of all trees in any
area will be protected (as an aside does anyone have figures for the
proportion of protected trees to unprotected trees anyway?).
What I'm guessing is that the proportions won't be the same i.e. more trees
(as a proportion) will be protected in more affluent areas because
protection of urban trees in this fashion is strongly influenced by
demographics - in other words if your reasonably wealthy and educated you're
more likely to 1) have knowledge about tree protection, 2) Be aware of the
benefits of trees 3) Know what buttons to push at the Town Hall.
Apologies for the enormous amount of stereotyping going on here but without
the basic knowledge, despite Jerry's assertion to the contrary, it is
difficult to describe otherwise.
The budget held by the tree staff, no matter where they may be or how much
it is, is interesting but irrelevant to the distribution of TPOs.
Happy New Year
John
-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Cullen [mailto:dscottcul@xxxx.net]
Sent: 29 December 2004 11:36
To: UK Tree Care
Subject: Re: Tree Officers - What are they worth?
Your maths are no dobut better than mine, but you've hit the concepts spot
on, I think even if the numbers vary a little. I suppose other LA's might
vary in actual experience.
A related line of thought that's come up on this "just" or "democratic"
distribution of either trees or tree budget is a bit interesting. I hope
John Flannigan will join in here. I think I got onto this from the 2003
Colin Price paper John. Is it just that "affluent" folks can outcompete
"unaffluent" folks in the marketplace for situations of amenity. Say trees
or fine views. Let's eliminate the issue of taste and sophistication and
say the struggling lot would actually prefer the same amenity as the snooty
lot.
On the leftist or social welfare side you might argue that somebody ought to
be interspering parks and gardens into Dingy Dale for the amenity of the
poor folks. The government through a tax scheme or the better-off folks
through some imposed charity scheme. It's only fair. And I suppose send
their kids to the best schools and make them drink fine wine rather cheap
beer or spirits.
On the rightist or capitalist side I suppose you might argue that if it gets
ugly enough they just might move away and wouldn't that be nice for the posh
folks? Except, then who'd they hire to sweep the stables? Actually, my
serious argument is that left to the extreme, with the primary motivation
being shelter, food and fuel, would we envision the sprawling slums of
Calcutta or Rio? Lots of amenity there. Does the existence of Snootyside
if fact insure that some areas of high amenity punctuate the regional
landscape. Does the wider populace experience more amenty - at least from
time to time - that way? Does the LA budget properly go to smooting out the
"public" amenity in between?
Scott Cullen
----- Original Message -----
From: "Birtles, Jerry" <jbirtles@xxxxxxxxxxx.gov.uk>
To: "UK Tree Care" <uktc@xxxxxx.tree-care.info>
Sent: Wednesday, December 29, 2004 4:38 AM
Subject: RE: Tree Officers - What are they worth?
<< I was wondering if TO salary was a big chunk of budget. >>
Scott,
In relation to TPOs to I suspect this one varies considerably between LAs.
However, in Wandsworth, TO salaries account for about 40% of total
budget -
the rest being spent on tree maintenance. Planning work accounts for about
15% of salaries - therefore about 6% of total budget (if my maths are
right). TPOs account for about 1/3 of planning works - so about 2% of
total
budget.
So even if there is an imbalance between the wealthy areas & the socially
deprived - for which, to keep the argument going, I maintain there is no
socio-economic rationale - then they are not being deprived of much.
Jerry
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