Valuation of Amenity Trees

[bob]

Out of curiosity do you work for, or have you worked for, a Local Authority?

 

I think you have listed the right questions but I think they can all be rephrased as follows -

How much would it be missed if it went, and by whom. And for how long?

How much does it add to the neighbourhood?

How badly does it need replacing, and how urgently? By a replacement of the same size and species?

How worthy is it of a TPO? And what difference does that make to the value?

 

And you didn't mention the poor owner...

 

And now my head is starting to hurt.

 

La blood running through my veins

 

Think the basis of the questions is similar and sadly I type faster than I think so often re word or work stuff later.

Re the Tpo there is a ready reasoning on what criteria it ends to qualify so I believe that helps set the president on value of an amenity tree.

Hope that makes sense

It's been a long day

But if we valuing the amenity value of the tree what does that matter to the tree owner?

Would certainly be easier to discuss round a gallon of beer than typing at the end of a day

[daltontrees]

La blood running through my veins

 

Think the basis of the questions is similar and sadly I type faster than I think so often re word or work stuff later.

Re the Tpo there is a ready reasoning on what criteria it ends to qualify so I believe that helps set the president on value of an amenity tree.

Hope that makes sense

It's been a long day

But if we valuing the amenity value of the tree what does that matter to the tree owner?

Would certainly be easier to discuss round a gallon of beer than typing at the end of a day

 

Been there too, 20 years in and out of local government (or public service as I stilll naively like to call it), I have sympathies in both directions.

 

I am reminded of the origins of the Hellliwell system. It started off as a way of assessing the relative amenity of trees, I think as a means of deciding whuich should be proptected and which shouldn't. It gave each tree a number of points based on size, position, form etc. I find it hard to fault it (except on a few matters of subjectivity) for that purpose. But then decades later someone decided to attach a £ per point and call it valuation. A quite arbitrary £ per point. That does not make it a valuation. That makes it a monetised amenity assessment. That's where all the confusion started, as far as I can tell. Like nailing a hundred bits of wood together, sticking it in the ground and calling it a tree. Sorry, but that's called a fence.

[Gary Prentice]

I think what troubles you is what troubles everyone. Putting a £ value on amenity.

 

But as soon as a TPO'd tree is removed without consent and a measure of the penalty is required, people will try.

 

Which reminds me, did you see the recent appeal court case in Poole, Regina v Davey? It could be a useful one for people to look at here?

 

Have you a link?

 

I'm afraid that after several hours of coursework I've nothing constructive to add. I'm attempting to assign a financial value for carbon sequestering, well being/feel good and other sociological benefits, property prices, SuDS, traffic calming and 101 other values of the green infrastructure. Should any of these be considered within the amenity value framework? I don't know.

[daltontrees]

Have you a link?

 

I'm afraid that after several hours of coursework I've nothing constructive to add. I'm attempting to assign a financial value for carbon sequestering, well being/feel good and other sociological benefits, property prices, SuDS, traffic calming and 101 other values of the green infrastructure. Should any of these be considered within the amenity value framework? I don't know.

 

Here's the case. The court accepts broadly that the neighbouring property before the illegal removal of the neighbour's tree is £50,000 less than after its removal.

r v davey.pdf

[daltontrees]

Have you a link?

I'm attempting to assign a financial value for carbon sequestering, well being/feel good and other sociological benefits, property prices, SuDS, traffic calming and 101 other values of the green infrastructure. Should any of these be considered within the amenity value framework? I don't know.

 

I think that falls into the tools for the job category, as long as you state what your figures cover and don't cover there is no problem. Except as ever that valuations are not valuations if they are not rooted, literally and metaphorically, in the legal control of the land on which the tree or trees are situated. In effect you are trying to put a figure on the benefits that everyone gets from a tree, which has very very little relationship to the value of the tree to the owner. As long as you keep calling that 'assigning a financial value' instead of 'valuing', it's sound.

 

As to which of these factors are amenity ones, wellbeing/feelgood definitely is. That seems to be what amenity is all about. Property prices are a reflection of that rather than another factor.

[Gary Prentice]

Here's the case. The court accepts broadly that the neighbouring property before the illegal removal of the neighbour's tree is £50,000 less than after its removal.

 

Many thanks Jules,

[daltontrees]

Now I see why nobody's ever posted about tree valuation before. Almost complete apathy about the subject amongst tree surgeons and tree workers. Oh well...

 

So now that I have a forum thread with tumbleweeds blowing through it I can indulge myself by filling it full of whatever I consider might be useful to anyone in the future looking for a bit of background information. I will concentrate on a few specific themes

how does the value of trees relate to the value of the land it is situated on (and vice versa)?

how does it relate to the value of other land and public places (and vice versa)?

what systems are currently used and what are their main features?

what is good and bad about existing systems?

what can be done about it?

 

(chirrip.... chirrip)

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

Made I Larf!

 

I'll keep an eye on the thread and chip in when I've un jumbled my thoughts!!

[Amelanchier]

Now I see why nobody's ever posted about tree valuation before...

 

Actually I was going to pick your brains after reading your article in the AA rag but felt it needed some proper time put into it - which I seem to be always short of at the moment. I will queue up some quality questions and queries to quiz you with in the quipless quietude of your quintessential quasi-quirky quest...

[daltontrees]

Actually I was going to pick your brains after reading your article in the AA rag but felt it needed some proper time put into it - which I seem to be always short of at the moment. I will queue up some quality questions and queries to quiz you with in the quipless quietude of your quintessential quasi-quirky quest...

 

Amazing alliteration! I like questions, basically I get excited by the subject of valuation and am astonished and delighted when anyone else is. So fire away anytime, I might not have the answer but I will try.