Trees and the Law

[paoloh]

Parents house backs onto woodland owned by the council.

Back of the house is about 7 metres from tree line and in the last few years the trees have obviously grown and are now blocking out massive amounts of light and they literally have to have the lights on in the day.

Mum called the council and they sent round a nice chap who told them due to spending cuts, they would have to cut the trees themselves.

Is this council allowed to do this or can parents force them to trim the trees?

Any help much appreciated!

[Mr GrimNasty]

Unless it is a high (evergreen) hedge (2 or more trees in a line well in excess of the max. value calculated via a mind-boggling formula) or a threat to life or property, no, nothing you can do, and even then, it would probably cost more in council and legal fees than doing the work yourself!

[paoloh]

The trees are 60ft maybe and there are 6-8.

[Road2Ruin]

The trees only need to be trimmed if they are causing danger or interfering with power or telephone lines. Sadly you buy a house near trees they are going to grow.

[Mr GrimNasty]

paoloh said:

The trees are 60ft maybe and there are 6-8.

If they are evergreen you could research the high hedges complaints procedure/legislation/BRE guidelines, otherwise there is nothing you can do.

[Dogwatch]

I'd start now on accepting the Council's kind offer of DIY. By the time they've lumbered your parents with every possible liability and excluded themselves from any others they haven't thought of the trees will be several feet higher.

Councils usually have a tame tree surgeon type for advice on protected trees. If he is in business for himself it might be worth seeing if you can get a competitive quote from him as less likely to ruin annoying precious Council trees, blah, blah. Otherwise see if they have an 'approved' tree surgeon.

[defblade]

Dogwatch said:

I'd start now on accepting the Council's kind offer of DIY.

Yep, chop 'em down quick while they've got permission.

[KrazyIvan]

defblade said:

Dogwatch said:

I'd start now on accepting the Council's kind offer of DIY.

Yep, chop 'em down quick while they've got permission.

I wouldnt do this unless you have it in on paper, as they will soon forget what they have told you, and promptly remove your funds and add them to there own.

[andy43]

If they're ash, oak or something decent/burnable, you might be able to get them chopped for nothing - have you seen the price of logs? Freecycle ad might get someone interested.

[paoloh]

Have a tree surgeon going round on Monday to quote.

I'll get some pics tomorrow and put them uo for peoples opinion.

[ClassicMercs]

Our local council also won't cut purely due to light problems - but are happy is you get it done.

They will, as previously suggested, get involved if its a safety or risk of damage assessment.

[base]

andy43 said:

If they're ash, oak or something decent/burnable, you might be able to get them chopped for nothing - have you seen the price of logs? Freecycle ad might get someone interested.

right you think someone covered by public liabilty insurance etc and capable of tackling 60ft trees will come and cut the trees for just the wood because "firewood is expensive"

and.....................................................back to reality

[treehack]

base said:

right you think someone covered by public liabilty insurance etc and capable of tackling 60ft trees will come and cut the trees for just the wood because "firewood is expensive"

and.....................................................back to reality

You would be surprised. I recently priced a take down with chipping all the brush and removing the wood. They then asked if we could log all the wood up and seemed surprised when I told him that it would cost extra £500 for the labour of cutting and splitting.

[base]

Trouble is treehack generally people have no idea the amount of work that goes into making "firewood" and lets be honest "Arb waste" is the most time consuming timber to convert into firewood,

Edited by base on Saturday 16th July 16:55

[Chrisgr31]

Aren't you allowed to chop off all the branches that overhang your boundary(assummings they are not protected trees)? Admitedly you'd end up with some pretty odd looking trees.

By the way I do suggest the OP tries to keep any dealings with his Council low key, otherwise some local busybody will look at having TPO's put on them!

[andy43]

base said:

andy43 said:

If they're ash, oak or something decent/burnable, you might be able to get them chopped for nothing - have you seen the price of logs? Freecycle ad might get someone interested.

right you think someone covered by public liabilty insurance etc and capable of tackling 60ft trees will come and cut the trees for just the wood because "firewood is expensive"

and.....................................................back to reality

Put it like this - first thing I did was click to see where the OP is based.
I have a chainsaw, a log splitter and maybe 5 cu.m of free logs drying out. No insurance though