electricity in an unadopted road

[tonym911]

We live on an unadopted road and receive our mains power via a cable suspended from poles. The cable is in the process of being engulfed by the upper branches of a dirty great chestnut tree on the other side of the road from our house.

My question is, are we within our rights to ask the electricity supplier to sort this out with a bit of tree surgery?

If I don't tell the leccy folk about it now, the supply will eventually be broken and then they'll have to sort it whether they want to or not. So I was thinking that they should be happy to take preventative action now, on the grounds that it can be scheduled into their normal works rather than having to respond to an emergency situation?

[NDA]

tonym911 said:

We live on an unadopted road and receive our mains power via a cable suspended from poles. The cable is in the process of being engulfed by the upper branches of a dirty great chestnut tree on the other side of the road from our house.

My question is, are we within our rights to ask the electricity supplier to sort this out with a bit of tree surgery?

If I don't tell the leccy folk about it now, the supply will eventually be broken and then they'll have to sort it whether they want to or not. So I was thinking that they should be happy to take preventative action now, on the grounds that it can be scheduled into their normal works rather than having to respond to an emergency situation?

Yes you are.

Whilst the ownership of the driveway might be unknown, the supplier 'owns' the line up until the moment it comes into your house - so it's their responsibility to sort out.

I have several electricity poles on my land and have something called a 'way leave' agreement from the electricity company which pays a small rental of something like £6 a year. It gives them the right to maintain their line. I had a line come down this winter because of snow damage, they came and fixed it at their cost - very quickly too.

I don't know if you'll persuade the supplier to come out as a preventative measure, they normally don't do anything until there's a problem.

[tonym911]

NDA said:

I don't know if you'll persuade the supplier to come out as a preventative measure, they normally don't do anything until there's a problem.

Thanks for this NDA, that's what the situation felt like to me. Interesting one this preventative thing. With electricity's inherent lethality I thought they might take a more pro-active view. I'll give them a shout and see what occurs.

Friend of ours got beaned by a falling oak limb last year after he'd been badgering the council to take action (he was pretty sure the limb was dangerous, oaks are thirsty buggers and crotchety when they're dry). He's never been quite the same since. Made the papers – which makes me think that could be a useful route to take if the electric people seem reluctant.

[rovermorris999]

They should be amenable. I had something similar earlier this year except the electricity board knocked on my door and asked if it was ok to trim trees on my land that were getting close to their lines. I said fine and contractors came and did it a few weeks later.

[tonym911]

That sounds hopeful. As I say, slightly different here in that their cables are on nobody's land, but I'll give them a tickle and see what happens.

[renmure]

Our supplier has a program of routine preventative prunning (5 yearly I think) to keep trees / branches at least 6m from lines and poles out here. I think you will find them very helpful.

[netherfield]

Certainly give them a ring and explain the situation,they will be glad it sort it out,a short circuit could blow a fuse in a substation affecting not only your supply but potentially hundreds of others.

We have a pole transformer at work,when the trees started to get close to this I informed the supply company who came within 24 hours to trim back the trees.

[Piglet]

Just because their line goes over the land doesn't give the Electricity Co the right to prune the trees does it?

You say the road is unadopted but that doesn't mean it's not owned by someone, have you checked for a landower?

[NDA]

Piglet said:

Just because their line goes over the land doesn't give the Electricity Co the right to prune the trees does it?

You say the road is unadopted but that doesn't mean it's not owned by someone, have you checked for a landower?

I think way leave agreements, in this case probably signed with the council, allow them to have access to maintain the lines. I've had a few battles with the electricity company over the years about trees being removed without my permission.

One of the difficulties is that the chainsaw gangs are sub-contractors are paid a small amount per metre, so their work is more about destroying rather than pruning.

Unadopted roads are, by and large, owned by the local council, but maintained by the residents rather than the local highways people.

[richyb]

Piglet said:

Just because their line goes over the land doesn't give the Electricity Co the right to prune the trees does it?

I belive the electricity company has the right to keep their lines clear regardless of current owners consent. A previous owner would have agreed to (or be forced to agree to) installation and maintainence of the lines/wayleaves. Its what people in arboriculture refer to as utility work and unfortunately tends to be not very pretty in terms of pruning.

EDIT - I agree with the above post, it is relatively low paid so climbers tend to go for pace not appearence.

Edited by richyb on Sunday 29th August 13:36

[M-J-B]

Our local electricity company comes along and trims whatever trees it sees fit to do every couple of years. It's in their interest and nothing more than preventative maintenance I guess. They have to trim about 200m of trees and it save me a job or two.

We have a large garden and a few years ago chopped down a load of laurel to tidy things up a bit. The pole carrying the electricity and phone lines was then exposed and effectively in our lawn. I called our supplier explained the situation and although it took 6 months, they came along, put a new pole in (in a position of my choice), shortly afterwards BT came and moved the phone line as they share the same pole, then the electricity supplier came back and took away the old pole.......at no charge to me!

[bimsb6]

the fact the road is unadopted is irrelevant to the overhead electric .

[x type]

Piglet said:

Just because their line goes over the land doesn't give the Electricity Co the right to prune the trees does it?

yes, for the following reasons

1 health and safety

2 do you prefer to have electricity or trees ?

3 by trimming the trees it helps to maintain your supply

trees are a pain in the preverbial when it comes to power lines

[Piglet]

x type said:

Piglet said:

Just because their line goes over the land doesn't give the Electricity Co the right to prune the trees does it?

yes, for the following reasons

1 health and safety

2 do you prefer to have electricity or trees ?

3 by trimming the trees it helps to maintain your supply

trees are a pain in the preverbial when it comes to power lines

It depends on the terms of the agreement, we have a sewer running through our garden to our neighbours house, they have the right to maintain the sewer, they don't have the right come and cut down our shrubs because they might be getting in the way.

The reasons you give are good but don't necessarily give a lawful right to someone to prune trees, especially as the person who owns the trees is not necessarily the person benefitting from the supply.

[rovermorris999]

I think electricity lines are a bit of a special case. A blocked sewer won't kill anyone but a tree touching a power line may well do. I think electricity boards have special rights and responsibilities in this area.

[renmure]

Piglet said:

x type said:

Piglet said:

Just because their line goes over the land doesn't give the Electricity Co the right to prune the trees does it?

yes, for the following reasons

1 health and safety

2 do you prefer to have electricity or trees ?

3 by trimming the trees it helps to maintain your supply

trees are a pain in the preverbial when it comes to power lines

It depends on the terms of the agreement, we have a sewer running through our garden to our neighbours house, they have the right to maintain the sewer, they don't have the right come and cut down our shrubs because they might be getting in the way.

The reasons you give are good but don't necessarily give a lawful right to someone to prune trees, especially as the person who owns the trees is not necessarily the person benefitting from the supply.

When the guys from Scottish Hydro Electric came to my place to discuss the tree / powerline situation we were looking at areas where the lines ran to my house through my trees/woodland and also areas where the lines ran through my trees/woodland to some neighbouring property.

They had a blown up map of the line and we did a walk-through of the areas where the lines and trees were close. Our discussion was all fairly informal and they were looking for agreement that certain trees could be cut (since they were within 5m of the lines or poles) and also agreement that others could be pruned back since they were likely to be well within 5m by the time of the following inspection in 5 years. Purely for interest I asked directly if they could force folk to agree to the pruning and they said that there were statutory powers under which they could force certain trees to be taken back to the 5m distance in a situation where the landowner did not initially give approval but they had not come across such a situation. No reason to think they were making that up. There was a fair degree of discussion in relation to several trees which I wanted prunned and they wanted chopped, but as long as the branches or bases were outwith the 5m exclusion zone then all was well and their map of the line was annotated accordingly.

In the event, about a month or so after I signed to agree, a gang of 4 fully equipped blokes with chainsaws, all the safety gear, a cherry picker, and a chipper to shread the branches appeared and got on with it. They were there for about 4 days. Odd thing was that part of the power line ran down the line of a tall 120m long Beech Hedge which they spent about 30 man hours on with chainsaws.. and which the local farmer trims for me with his verge cutting attachment on the tractor in less than an hour! I did suggest they gave him £25 to do it for them but they seemed to prefer the long way.

Edited by renmure on Monday 30th August 13:54

[Chrisgr31]

Piglet said:

x type said:

Piglet said:

Just because their line goes over the land doesn't give the Electricity Co the right to prune the trees does it?

yes, for the following reasons

1 health and safety

2 do you prefer to have electricity or trees ?

3 by trimming the trees it helps to maintain your supply

trees are a pain in the preverbial when it comes to power lines

It depends on the terms of the agreement, we have a sewer running through our garden to our neighbours house, they have the right to maintain the sewer, they don't have the right come and cut down our shrubs because they might be getting in the way.

The reasons you give are good but don't necessarily give a lawful right to someone to prune trees, especially as the person who owns the trees is not necessarily the person benefitting from the supply.

Its slightly different with a sewer although treeroots do get in them. However if they do the solution is usually to run a liner down the inside of the sewer. We had a blocked sewer recently and the neighbour in whose garden it was in originally was difficult about giving access. Local Council spoke to him and said they could just come in and do it, and if they did the damage to his garden would be guaranteed to be a lot worse than if he consented to the contractors coming in!

[tonym911]

I appreciate the high quality advice and information here, many thanks to all. Just to confirm what an earlier poster said about the owner of the road, it is indeed the local council. Since putting this thread up I've been told that the elec co loggers have been round in the past and been fine. They do need to come I think as the power line is completely hidden by branches and foliage in more than one place.

Edited by tonym911 on Monday 30th August 23:54

[NDA]

tonym911 said:

Just to confirm what an earlier poster said about the owner of the road, it is indeed the local council.

That was me. Unfortunately the local council will never take an interest in your road/lane - which may be a good thing actually!

Give the electricity supplier a ring and let us know what they say......

[tonym911]

Just trying to find out who the supplier is! We pay British Gas on a joint elec/gas deal so I suppose I'll start my inquiries there.