Staffordshire County Council has been prosecuted for failing to inspect and maintain trees found on a public footpath after a member of the public was struck and killed.
On 3 October 2019 a man was killed by part of a falling oak tree while walking his dog in Stafford.
The multi-stemmed mature hybrid oak was approximately 12-14 metres high with a crown radius of around seven and ten metres was found to have defects which made it likely to fall when inspected by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
Legally, local authorities must suitably and sufficiently manage the risks and hazards posed by the trees within their responsibility remit. The tree was on the Isabel Trail, which had been omitted from the usual programme of proactive inspection and maintenance that Staffordshire County Council had across the county.
Staffordshire County Council pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and were fined £300,000, ordered to pay costs of £13,164.90 and a victim surcharge £181.
HSE inspector Lyn Mizen commented after the hearing:
"This tragic incident could have been averted if the required periodic tree safety inspections, as per the Staffordshire County Council’s own Code of Practice, had been carried out. Local Authorities need to ensure they have suitable inspection systems in place, including monitoring and audit provisions, to guard against situations such as this, and to ensure they have enough suitably trained and competent tree inspectors to enable compliance with their tree management policies and codes of practice."
