BTC/84/2013 - Tree risk management for duty holders and arborists; an alternative approach. Article 3/3 for Arboriculture Australia’s The Bark (June 2013)
When a tree failure results in harm and it progresses to formal proceedings, the legal focus falls on whether an appropriate standard of care was met, firstly by the duty holder, and secondly by the inspecting arborist. In this final article of the series offering a UK perspective on tree consultancy, Jeremy Barrell (www.barrelltreecare.co.uk) cuts through the confusion and complication that dominates modern tree risk management, to reveal a few surprising and simpler alternatives. From his unique perspective as an expert witness in tree failure cases, he believes that the time has come to step back and take a reality check on how we deal with tree safety, setting it into a much wider legal and social context. This fresh look at old problems provides an opportunity to simplify the decision-making process, an evolution that both duty holders and arborists have needed for some time.