Action scheduled
2 Trees - Welbeck Avenue (corner of Dorset Place)
Sent to Buckinghamshire Council less than a minute later. FixMyStreet ref: 7956800.
We have some very intrusive trees at the side of our property - Welbeck Avenue (corner of Dorset Place). We have approached the council several times in the past few years and with no joy. All they say is the trees are healthy and if they are overhanging our property we have permission to cut them back. The problem is they are 30ft high or more, it’s not possible for me to cut them back and not fair for me to bear the cost of having council trees maintained.
The trees were planted late 70s, early 80s and as they grew it was obvious they were the wrong type of trees for the area. Over the years they have been cut back at least 3 times by the council (council records will confirm this), but for some reason they seemed reluctant to cut them back this time. The main problem we have every year is as follows:
1) They restrict light and viewing from our bedroom window, which I think there is a ‘Right to Light Act’ legally enforceable.
2) The beginning of the season we get sticky residue from the tress, which cover everything in the garden. We are aware of your soapy water suggestion, but if
3) We then have the seed pods appear, they land everywhere in the garden. If the windows are open they land on the bed in the bedroom, basically anywhere there is an opening.
We have bi fold doors, which if opened the seeds land all over the room. We can’t eat in the garden when the seeds are floating down; landing in our food (BBQ, etc). It’s ridiculous.
4) When Autumn arrives the leaves from the trees cover our property front and back. I can’t see my lawn for leaves. To crown it all, I had to invest years ago in a leaf blower to clear up the leaves left by these council trees. It’s becoming a full time job to keep my property free from debris.
We did write to Councillor Winn back in May who stated that he would report it on here, but we don't seem to see any log made.
Please can this be investigated.
Updates
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A Highway Officer will carry out an initial assessment of the tree, emergency issues will be corrected or made safe at the time of the inspection, if reasonably practicable to do so. In this context, making safe may constitute displaying warning notices, coning‐off or fencing‐off to protect the public from the tree or other suitable action.
If the inspection team cannot make safe the defect at the time of inspection, then they will instigate the relevant emergency call procedures to ensure appropriate resources are mobilised to make the tree safe. Highway Officers are not qualified as tree experts and in some cases they may need to arrange for a tree surgeon to visit the site and carry out a survey on the tree which can take up to 12 weeks.
There may also be occasions when the issue reported will be classified as a minor defect and does not pose any risk to either the safety or the integrity of the highway, these are called minimum recording levels as specified in our Highways Safety Inspection Policy, in these cases no action will be taken.
We do not prune or remove council owned trees to improve natural light for a private property (including obstruction of solar panels). If you wish to carry out any work on a tree, you must first check the tree is not protected before any work is started. How to find out if a tree has a Tree Preservation Order (TPO) in Buckinghamshire.
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Update
The Highways Officer has attended the site and completed an inspection based on your report.
As a result of this inspection, we plan to resolve the issue reported within 6-8 weeks.
Thank you for taking the time to let us know, your reports alongside our Highways Safety Inspections are crucial to ensuring our network is safe for all residents and visitors.
Regards
Buckinghamshire Highways
This report is now closed to updates from the public. You can make a new report in the same location.