Government departments under fire for arguing over responsibility for upkeep of roadside trees
Departments squabble among themselves over who should be responsible for care of trees and, in some cases, for removing dangerous ones
Government departments have been passing the buck and arguing whether it is their responsibility to maintain roadside trees that might pose threats to road users, the Audit Commission has found.
The disagreements are so deep-rooted that the government had to establish last year an internal appeal board for departments unhappy with decisions made by the Tree Management Office - a dedicated unit to coordinate tree management efforts - over who is responsible.
One of the core arguments is the definition of "landscaped area" by the roadside, which the commission said had not been "fully settled" among the departments despite high-level cross-departmental meetings since 2012.
Trees on a "landscaped area" are cared for by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, while other roadside trees in urban areas are the responsibility of the Highways Department and the Lands Department.
The responsibility had been set out in a government technical circular issued in 2004, but "frequent disputes" among the departments had continued, the commission said.
