FOI request (FOIR-762156708)

Tree Management and Survey Data (2015–Present)

Requested Mon 03 November 2025
Responded Tue 25 November 2025

I am undertaking an analysis of tree data and would be grateful if you could provide information as outlined below. I am happy to refine or narrow the request if necessary and appreciate any advice under Section 16 of the Act to enable the most efficient disclosure.

1. Tree Management System

Please confirm which tree management software package your organisation currently uses. If it is an in-house system, please state this, or state if none is used.

2. Tree Inventory Summary

Please provide:

a. The approximate number of trees for which your organisation has management responsibility.

b. The number of those trees that are subject to Tree Preservation Orders (TPOs).

3. Tree Data

Please provide available tree data for the period 2015 to the current date.

If the dataset is too large or would exceed the appropriate cost/time limits under Section 12 of the FOI Act, please provide a manageable subset of the data. I will calculate proportionality from this subset.

Would you either:

• Provide a link to a publicly accessible and downloadable portal, or

• Provide the data in CSV or XLSX format.

For each tree, I would be grateful if the following attributes could be included where available:

• Survey data capture date

• Tree number/reference

• Species

• Height

• Diameter at breast height (DBH)

• Crown dimensions

• Growth direction measurements (North, East, South, West)

• Tree location (Ordnance Survey coordinates, British National Grid reference, Global ID, or other locational parameter)

Where a tree has been surveyed on multiple occasions, please include all recorded entries (for example, Tree 1 may have data spanning 2015–2024, Tree 2 may only have data for 2023–2024).

4. Format and Clarification

If the data structure or field names differ from the list above, please include a brief explanation or a data dictionary so that the dataset can be interpreted accurately.

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Response

1.

NOTICE OF REFUSAL

The information you have requested regarding what software Hastings Borough Council is using for tree management is commercially sensitive and falls under Section 43 of the Freedom of Information Act – Commercially Sensitive Information - Information prejudicing commercial interests – commercial interest relating to an organisations commercial activity and may include trading activity procurement and relationships with third parties.

The exemption afforded by Section 43 is subject to what is known as the ‘public interest test’. When applying the test in a particular case a public authority is deciding whether the public interest is better served by non-disclosure than by disclosure.

Although the Freedom of Information Act does not define ‘in the public interest’, there is a presumption under Freedom of Information that openness is in the public interest. In applying the public interest test a public authority will take into account the distinction that has been often made by courts between things that are in the public interest, and things that merely interest the public. Where applicants have not identified public interest considerations succinctly or accurately, the public authority has a responsibility under the Act to make their own assessment of the public interest considerations in the particular case.

We have identified the following public interest factors that may be seen as encouraging the disclosure of information:

a) accountability of public spending.

We consider these factors to be of limited relevance in relation to the information in question.

Public interest factors seen as encouraging non-disclosure are, generally, the exemptions themselves. In consideration of this matter we came to the following conclusions:

a) ensuring that companies are able to compete for business fairly.

b) damage to reputation and/or financial interests.

In weighing the factors for and against disclosure we have concluded that the likely benefit to the applicant and the wider public of disclosure is outweighed by the likely prejudice caused by such disclosure and that therefore the public interest is better served by non-disclosure.

For the reasons given above we will not be communicating to you the information you have requested.

2a. Approximately 11,000 under council management.

2b. The council hold in the region of 300 tree preservation orders ranging from individual trees to woodland tree preservation orders covering large areas.

3. No information held.

4. No information held.