Issues with a contractor mean work to remove trees affected by ash dieback disease in North Lanarkshire are behind schedule.

The disease is caused by a non-native fungus which arrived in the UK around 30 years ago.

According to the Woodland Trust, it will kill up to 80 per cent of all ash trees in the country as native trees have no resistance to it, costing around £15bn and devastating wildlife species which rely on ash trees.

In North Lanarkshire, evidence of infection was found in several council wards with a contractor hired to carry out remediation work in four of these.

However, problems with the work have meant that problems are still present in Bellshill and Motherwell West as well as Cumbernauld East.

External contractors are struggling to keep up with demand as every local authority needs ash dieback to be controlled, so in future, the council will limit its contracts to a maximum of two wards.

The council forecasts it will need to spend around £500,000 each year on tree inspection and remediation, and that it may continue to experience problems hiring the appropriate specialists due to high demand.

It is hoped that this will be partially offset by expanding in-house capabilities.

In June the council made an additional £1m payment to hire temporary tree management workers and acknowledges that a longer-term programme will need to be included in its capital budget.

Trees normally take around 5-10 years to fully degrade from ash dieback but this seems to be speeding up.

More than 44,000 trees may require to be felled within the next 50 years.

The council is working on a new plan to manage its arboreal estate, including various options for the planting of new urban and woodland trees as well as deer management and the promotion of biodiversity.

This latest report was formally approved by the environment and climate change committee at a recent meeting.