Wednesday 8 September 2010

Torpor? No, frenetic activity!

I suspect that I’ve broken the rules, written or unwritten, of blogging by being inactive for such a long time but it’s not torpor that’s been holding me back, far from it!

Practically speaking
The job for Tamworth Borough Council is about to get going,

http://www.tamworth.gov.uk/

I’ve got my team on site now testing our ICT solution and submitting sample data sets to the Tree Officer, Marc Budge.

I can begin to see a pinprick of light expanding into a pool, that I can only presume means the end of the tunnel that has been the Registered Social Landlord’s project – but it is still in need of completion! The engagement of experienced project managers (experience in both arboriculture and delivering large scale projects) made a significant difference to progress and quality assurance, as did the hiring of more boots on the ground.

A survey for a sister company has gone well; I look forward to a repeat visit to the Midlands later in the year.

A tree management project that has been submitted to planners for their consideration has been given the go-ahead – the population is in a private road near Solihull. I hope to have clarification on the timelines for the project shortly, my proposal was that the work be spread over five years, the consent as granted refers to only two years.

We have now completed the survey of the trees in the housing areas for Oxford City Council – it is my understanding from my team on the ground that the project has gone well, the IT has been a bit of a bore on occasion but we have now submitted a seamless data set of in excess of 20,000 records to the client. The next phase will see us move into the parks and open spaces, my ambition is to provide a team of up to four surveyors to get on to the ground whilst the weather remains favourable and the species can be identified and any fungi noted!

Unfortunately Buckinghamshire County Council have withdrawn the PQQ for the management of thier green spaces, I am not sure why – I was looking forward to the project and I hope that there will be other similar opportunities.

Expressly interesting
My impression is that whilst some opportunities are drying up – there seem to have been fewer enquiries for development site tree surveys in recent weeks – other areas, or perhaps groups of clients, remain buoyant.

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