City of Dunfermline Area Committee
25th May 2011
Agenda Item No. 13
Pittencrieff Park: Tree and Woodland Management
Report by: Grant Ward, Head of Leisure & Cultural Services
Wards Affected: Dunfermline North, Dunfermline Central, Dunfermline South
Purpose of Report
The purpose of this report is to present the recommendations of a Tree Survey and Tree
and Woodland Management Plan for Pittencrieff Park, Dunfermline.
Recommendation
Members are requested to note the contents of this report.
Resource Implications
Funding will be required to implement the recommendations outlined in the Tree and
Woodland Management Plan. This will be met partly through the application to the
Heritage Lottery Fund submitted in February 2011. In addition, it is anticipated that further
funding will be sought from the Forestry Commission through the Forestry Challenge
Funds under the Scotland Rural Development Programme (SRDP).
Legal & Risk Implications
There are no major risks associated with carrying out the proposal.
Policy & Impact Assessment
Management of trees and woodland within Pittencrieff Park will contribute towards the
Council’s big 8 priorities, especially to: ‘improve sport, leisure and cultural opportunities’;
‘improve educational attainment and achievement for all’; ‘improve local conditions for
economic development’ and ‘make Fife the leading green Council’.
Consultation
The Parks and Countryside Service has liaised closely with the Environment and
Development Services regarding the Tree and Woodland Management Plan. Extensive
public consultation surveys were carried out by RGA Associates and ScotInform in
2009/10 and The Friends of Pittencrieff Park are highly involved with the Park.
1.0
Background
1.1
Pittencrieff Park is a 31 hectare park lying within the Royal Burgh of Dunfermline.
Known locally as The Glen, the park was formerly the privately owned Pittencrieff
Estate. In 1902, Andrew Carnegie bought the house and estate, and donated the
whole property to the town as a public park.
1.2
The Round 2 ‘Parks for People’ Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) application for the
restoration and regeneration of Pittencrieff Park was submitted in February 2011.
The outcome of the application will be known by July 2011.
1.3
A 100% grant, of £8,490, was secured from the Central Scotland Green Network
Fund / Forestry Commission to carry out a Tree Survey and Tree and Woodland
Management Plan which was completed by Donald Rodger Associates,
Arboricultural Consultants in March 2011. Appendix 1 (Long Term Tree and
Woodland Strategy) presents an excerpt taken from the Tree and Woodland
Management Plan, however, if required, full copies of the Tree Survey Schedule
and the Tree and Woodland Management Plan are available to view.
1.4
The entire Park falls within a Conservation Area. This confers statutory protection
under the Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 to all trees with a trunk diameter in excess
of 75mm when measured at 1m from ground level.
1.5
Two areas of the Park are recorded in Scottish Natural Heritage’s Inventory of
Ancient and Semi-Natural Woodland.
 The Glen Woodland is designated as ancient semi-natural woodland. This
suggests that this area of the Park has been under continuous woodland
cover since at least 1600.
 A narrow strip of tree along the western boundary with Coal Road is
designated as long established woodland of plantation origin. These are
woods that appear to have been planted between 1750 and 1860 (or even
prior to 1750) and have a proven continuity of woodland cover for at least
150 years. This part of the Park, however, has essentially lost its woodland
character, and consists now of a few scattered mature trees in a park setting.
2.0
Issues and Options
2.1
Fife Council is committed to managing and developing its parks and green spaces
for the benefit of all its residents and has stated its intention to achieve Green Flag
standards of design, management and maintenance in its major parks and green
spaces to meet the needs of the whole community in line with Council Policy. As
part of the Heritage Lottery Fund application in February 2011, a 10-year
Management Plan for Pittencrieff Park was prepared to ensure that all the criteria to
achieve Green Flag status are covered. Additional funding to realise the
recommendations in the Tree and Woodland management Plan is required and it is
anticipated that this will be sought from the Forestry Commission through their
Forestry Challenge Funds under the Scotland Rural Development Programme
(SRDP).
2.2
Pittencrieff Park is a very distinctive landscape in the heart of Dunfermline.
Improvements to the Park will help Dunfermline become a more prosperous and
competitive place for business and will encourage people to want to live there. Fife
Council is committed to ensuring that it continues to be regarded as one of
Scotland’s premier public parks. Investment in Pittencrieff Park at this time will
ensure that it is there for future generations to enjoy. Pittencrieff Park is an
important and popular park, with cultural significance, but over the years, with cuts
to budgets and resources, it has declined and would benefit greatly from proactive
tree management.
2.3
The regeneration of Pittencrieff Park as an attractive, safe and well maintained
greenspace will aid the vision for Fife as a place with a high quality green network,
enriching people’s lives (from simple strolls through the park to active engagement
with volunteers in projects such as native flora planting in the woodland areas),
promoting economic prosperity due to its close proximity to the heart of Dunfermline
with the Abbey and Palace ruins, allowing nature to flourish through biodiversity and
helping tackle climate change.
2.4
Fife’s Greenspace Strategy recommends that due to its strategic importance, not
only to Dunfermline but also to the wider Fife area, Pittencrieff Park is a high priority
for improvements. Public consultation findings through the People’s Panel shows
that the 3 main challenges are: increasing access to publicly usable greenspaces;
improving the quality of greenspaces; and increasing the use of greenspaces.
2.5
Strategic development meetings are held regularly to discuss future aims for
Pittencrieff Park with all stakeholders, including Carnegie Dunfermline Trust and the
Friends of Pittencrieff Park, who are supportive of improvement plans for the park.
3.0
Conclusions
3.1
The restoration and regeneration of Pittencrieff Park is supported by local Fife
residents and key stakeholders. It is considered to be one of Fife’s most important
greenspaces and long term management of the trees and woodlands within the
Park will ensure it continues to be an attractive, safe and well maintained
greenspace enriching and benefiting people’s lives now and for the future.
List of Appendices
1. Pittencrieff Park – Long Term Tree and Woodland Strategy (excerpt taken from the
‘Tree and Woodland Management Plan for Pittencrieff Park, Dunfermline’ for and on
behalf of Fife Council by Donald Rodger Associates, Arboricultural Consultants, February
2011.)
Report Contact
Lesley Scott
Major Parks Officer
7 Abbot Street, Dunfermline
T: 08451 555555 Ext. 493317
E: lesleye.scott@fife.gov.uk
Appendix 1
Pittencrieff Park – Long Term Tree and Woodland Strategy
The Park contains a notable population of trees encompassing a very broad and diverse
range of species. Collectively, this forms a valuable resource and functions as an informal
arboretum. The species composition does, however, reflect fashions in planting and the
municipal development of the site as a public park over the last century. Traditional ‘estate’
planting of a relatively limited range of long-term landscape specimens, such as beech,
oak, lime and sycamore, has been replaced to a large extent by the introduction of more
short-lived, ornamental species, such as flowering cherries and garden conifers. This has
created a rather mixed and confused landscape which combines the traditional with the
modern. Despite the apparent lack of a cohesive long term strategy, the overall effect is to
create an attractive treed landscape which provides the setting for the Park’s many
activities.
The tree cover also spans centuries of planting by successive landowners and managers.
Large, mature specimens which formed part of the early landscape of Pittencrieff House
have been supplemented by later phases of planting, most notably since the Park was
purchased by Andrew Carnegie and gifted to the people of the town in 1903. This has
created, overall, a broad range of age class from young tree to mature specimen in excess
of 250 years old. The age class distribution is fairly well balanced overall, although young
trees are relatively poorly represented and an ongoing tree planting programme needs to
be put in place to ensure long term succession and continuity of tree cover. Tree condition
is generally good to fair overall, and most trees have a reasonable future life expectancy.
The proportion of poor trees is relatively small, and many of these could be enhanced and
improved by appropriate surgery work.
1
Parkland Trees
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Promote the retention and continuity of tree cover across the park as a whole, by
bringing the existing trees into a regime of sound arboricultural management and
through an ongoing and phased programme of replanting.
Retain the existing mature trees as long as possible. Specimen trees should be
retained, where appropriate, for as long as it is safe to do so. Most trees have a
reasonable future life expectancy.
Identify and make safe potentially dangerous trees for safety reasons, and minimise
risk to public safety. Where trees are identified as dead, dying or dangerous, and
present an unacceptable risk to safety, these should be removed.
Carry out remedial tree surgery, where appropriate, in line with best current
arboricultural practice. Modern arboricultural techniques and practices should be
employed as a means of retaining trees, where necessary and appropriate.
Reductive surgery to reduce the size and spread of the crown and promote regrowth and regeneration should be preferred as a means of retaining important
landscape trees which are exhibiting symptoms of decline.
Plant new specimen trees to provide long-term continuity of tree cover. Gaps in the
canopy should be in-filled, and the linear planting design respected.
Build on and extend the already diverse species composition by planting a wide
range of trees suited to the site and setting.
Improve and enhance the interpretative and educational value of the tree collection.
This could involve the establishment of a ‘Tree Trail’.
Instigate a recorded and defensible system of tree safety inspections, and maintain
up-date records.
2
Glen Woodland
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3
Bring the woodland into sound and sustainable silvicultural management.
Retain continuity of woodland cover by adopting a sustainable, continuous cover
silvicultural regime.
Commence an ongoing programme of selective thinning to improve overall
woodland quality.
Create a more uneven age structure where all developmental stages are
represented.
Instigate a re-structuring programme by a process of small group felling and
regeneration.
Encourage and promote natural regeneration of a wider range of tree and shrub
species native to the area to enhance diversity and wildlife value.
Control potentially invasive tree species, such as sycamore.
Eradicate Japanese knotweed and bamboo and reduce and control rhododendron
and laurel.
Utilise and promote natural regeneration wherever possible.
Retain and manage the mature tree population for as long as it is safe to do so.
Enhance wildlife value and biodiversity by retaining standing and fallen deadwood.
South Woodland
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Retain individually surveyed mature trees as long as it is safe to do so.
Light, selective silvicultural thinning to remove poor, dead and suppressed trees of
inferior quality. Better specimens to be retained and allowed to grow on. Remove
approximately 2 in 6 stems.
Formative pruning to retained trees to improve quality.
Remove redundant tree stakes.
Crown lift/brash to 2m to improve access/sightlines.
Remove redundant boundary fence.