Local Council Issues - Advice needed.

Columbo

Columbo

Columbo

Soldato
Joined
26 Mar 2007
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Nottinghamshire
Firstly apologies for the long post.

I have an issue with a tree outside my house that is not on my border.

Recently the drains to all the houses on our section got blocked, the water board came out and cleared them but in the process of this they noted that tree roots had penetrated the pipes in locations (they had put a camera down to have a look).

Additionally late last year I had noticed cracks beginning to appear in the tarmac and concrete both on my drive and on the pavement outside my house. I had a council inspector come and look and they blamed this on the extreme cold the year before which I accepted, rightly or wrongly.

However recently the cracks have been getting worse and again 2 weeks ago the drain blocked up again. Yet again the guy that unblocked them said that the roots were causing a major problem, not only with the pipes under ground but with the surface as well because the roots are physically moving the pipes.

So to show you what I mean:
Tree.jpg


The tree in the middle is the one the water board say is causing the problem. The bottom right hand of the photo is my drive, everything to left of my front wall (on the right) is not my border and therefore I presumed the council's responsibility. The drain that keeps blocking is in the middle of the road near the blue Peugeot.

You can even see the cracks on the surface I'm talking about in the photo, a couple of years ago they were not there.

So I ring the council last week and they agree to send out a tree inspector, today I get home from work to find this response in my post.

TreeLetter.jpg


Now I'm baffled by that reply. The council mow the grass that surrounds that very tree, they laid a new surface of tarmac not 3 years ago on the pavement outside my drive, those wooden posts you can see sticking out of the ground were installed by the council 3 years ago. 2 years ago they even pruned that exact tree in the summer.

So I'm a bit stuck as to what my response should be if I'm honest. Is there anybody here that could some advice on what my next move should be.

Any help offered would be very appreciated.
 
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$loth said:
Who is the owner of the land which the tree is on? I would have thought it would be the council.
Click to expand...

Well thats what I thought being as they maintain the grass the tree is stood on, have pruned the trees and re-surfaced quite a lot of the area fairly recently.

Thats why I'm slightly baffled by the response. :confused:
 
Actually anything that falls outside the boundry of your house falls to the water company to sort out at least when it comes to the pipes. I would take this up with them to be honest but since you dont seems to have that much of an issue apart from blockages every now and then I doubt you will get very far but you could at least fire off a letter to them. I belive they have some sort of legal right of access for water pipes to you house so should be able to sort it out. It might be that you will need more frequent blockages for them to really concider any larger scale works in that area.

On the subject of the tree it doesnt look to be that old so I doubt there are any Tree preservation orders on it or anything to worry about so the water board could look to at least cut away some of the root structures allowing the tree to remain at least.

The council might not `own` the land but has some sort of aggrement with the land owner to upkeep that area this is quite common for local councils.
 
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I work for a Council and if the tree falls on our land we are responsible. However, if the tree is on land owned by the the Highways Authority. Eg Kent Highways Service they would be responsible for the tree.
 
What do you want done with it ? It's a nice tree shame to get rid of it, if the drains are in the footpath the water board should be sorting them out, you can get the old drain runs cleared and sleeved which isn't that difficult or expensive, if you're paying to have them unblocked you might want to consider just getting them lined
 
Is that cherry? My dad got through about 4 chainsaw chains when we had the same problem in our front garden when I was young.. they are tough!

Mind you some of that may be bad technique! Get someone else to do it if poss!
 
DO a land search, I work for a Council and we know which land is ours or is not ours, but we would have to do a land search which costs around £8-12 so you have to throw it back to the customer to do otherwise you can spend a fortune.
 
Yeh, cut the tree down, let's all live in a miserable wasteland of concrete, tarmac and brick :(

Get the drains lined, end of problem.
My cherry tree sits right on top of my drain and about a meter from the house - no problems.
 
Some decent advice here guys thanks. I'll do a land search and see what I get back.

Yes it is a Cherry Tree and I don't particularly care whether the tree stays or goes, however I do want something doing about the drains as raw sewage running down your drive is not particularly pleasant.
 
sounds like a typical council brush off as they dont want to spend any money.

best thing to do is get the report from the waterboard sent to them stating its the tree thats on council land thats the problem.

end of the day if you had a tree and it was causing the same problems to a council property they would be going nuts at you. just dont take no as an answer from them.
 
Trees and drains don't mix. In Paddington Sydney a lot of trees were planted in the Victorian streets and very attractive they are too.However they naturally sense where it is moist and damp and head straight there especially in an area which is generally sunny and relatively dry not to say resting on sandstone. I poysonally like the trees and occasionally a drain rout cutter to operate.
As stated the ownership of land is easily established
 
there not useless, staurt. just the poor person on the end of the phone wont have te authority to ok spending any money and will be scared of saying it needs to be spent. as there name will be stuck on the end if it causes problems.

seen it here localy myself working at our council no one wants to make a decission incase something goes wrong.
 
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Nottinghamshire County Council have simply said they don't own the tree. This is probably correct. Their reply could have been a little more helpful in pointing your in the right direction of who you do need to contact.

The tree looks like it's on amenity land, which would usually be the responsibility of your District, Borough or City Council - whoever you pay your Council tax to. You need to contact them.

I'd be surprised if the water board haven't already been in touch if it's damaged their assets.
 
it will probably belong to highways, send them a letter. explain everything to them, your letter from the council etc. they have there own dept that deals with this. i suspect they will come round and do the whole street, because as one becomes an issue, they all do.

they all need cutting back to minimise root growth, without this they will just get worse.

as a tip, when and if they do come round and cut back, you will propably experiance root death, which in turn will allow the ground to suck up more water, which in turn can raise a path/garden 15cm in some instances, so you might get cracking on the drive due to this.
 
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