Council leader Owen O’Donnell has pledged to raise the cost of dealing with ash dieback disease at a national level, after it was estimated around £4 million could be needed to fell 4,000 trees.

Officials at East Renfrewshire Council are drawing up an action plan to manage the disease, which is caused and transmitted by a wind-borne fungal spore.

Scottish Forestry has predicted it could lead to the loss of 50 to 75% of all ash trees in the country over the next 20 years, but a council official said they weren’t aware of any funding for local authorities dealing with the problem.

“The councils are having to take this on the chin themselves unfortunately,” he added. Trees at an advanced stage of the disease are at “high risk of collapse” — and the council has a duty to protect the public from falling trees or branches on its land.

Surveys carried out so far have revealed over 3,000 trees on East Renfrewshire Council’s estate have the disease, and it has been estimated “a further 1,000” will “potentially be affected”.

Cllr O’Donnell, Labour, said dealing with the issue is “an unfunded budget pressure”. “It’s a nationwide issue, it’s not unique to East Renfrewshire.”

The council official said there was “no funding available that we are aware of” and he was “not aware” of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities’ (COSLA) position on the matter.

“A lot of councils are putting action plans together, I think only then they’ll know the full extent. That’s going to be a high value, Glasgow was looking at somewhere between £25m and £38m to deal with ash trees within their area.”

He added: “Possibly something does need to be aired at COSLA.”

Cllr O’Donnell said: “I’m happy to raise that at the COSLA economy and environment board. If this is growing to be another huge pressure on councils, we should at least air it and get that in front of government.”

A report to East Renfrewshire’s cabinet warns that failure to address the problem could “have significant health and safety implications for the council and could lead to reputational damage or legal action”.

The official said developing an action plan, to cover a five to eight year period, would allow the council to “fully assess the extent of the disease and prepare a prioritised plan for dealing with it”.

The report states it is “difficult to estimate costs for identified future felling works as it will be dependent on tree size, location and quantity, how the disease has progressed, material disposal and traffic management fees”.

However, it adds: “Using an average of £1,000 per tree (without traffic management) for approximately 4,000 trees yet to be felled, would result in an estimated cost of £4m.”

Councillors will consider an interim £220,000 plan during this year’s budget setting process. That would see around 160 high risk trees felled and a further survey carried out.

The council aims to replace each tree felled, although this will not always be in the same place. By the end of March, the council will have planted 10,000 mixed native saplings across the area, funded by the Scottish Government.