Poorly chicken

[bluekarin]

There are a few paths I take my dog along for a walk, especially when the weather is too vile for the park, that have beautiful front gardens with lovely trees and shrubs. Sadly, these hang over the pavement quite a bit - sometimes hubby and I need to walk in single file. I have already contacted the council about a particular hedge which is a good foot over the pavement, and is on a bend so you can't see who is coming towards you, which with pushing ED in her wheelchair and having dog on tow can be quite interesting, and the owners have trimmed but not enough IMO. Does anyone know if the council can also make people trim their shrubbery in these other paths as I am not sure if they only contacted the other people because I mentioned the problems with pushing a wheelchair past it? I got whacked in the face a few nights ago by a tree that I just couldn't see (the lighting is quite poor there too). Any help or advice is much appreciated

[Cinnamon]

Are they public footpaths?

if so,I would contact your local council,as I think they have to maintain them.

[bluekarin]

Yes they are. I have contacted them anyway to see if they will sort them out, but I have a feeling I will need to give then house numbers of the 'offenders'

[Cinnamon]

I am sure you will.

We were once reported to the council for having a large & smelly bonfire,when in fact it was our next door neighbour.

I phoned them,but they refused to take the complaint off of our records until I told them which house had actually caused the nuisance.

They are pretty pedantic.

[Alis girls]

Yes they can - my dad in Leicestershire had a shrub which overhung by nothing near a foot and was told by council to trim it. Its a prickly one to stop local yob fraternity from sitting on his wall. I wish out council would be a s tough. Some shrubs round here nearly make you walk in the road.

[craftyhunnypie]

Being on the other side of this argument..we used to have holly & horrendous laurel trees at our old house. Yes you can get the council to call on the owner of the over hanging trees. They then have so long to cut them back before another inspection. If the owner doesn't cut them back, the council will & then they send them the bill! We were always good once we got told to cut them back as they were over hanging a path a bit & a lady got raindrops on her head from our trees!

Emma.x

[bluekarin]

We were always good once we got told to cut them back as they were over hanging a path a bit & a lady got raindrops on her head from our trees!

Emma.x

 

I would never complain about being dripped on! We have a silver birch in our front garden which does overhang the pavement a bit. Someone once broke off a length of branch and threw it into our front garden I guess they were fed up of being whacked by it My hubby was wondering if it was ok for us to trim said bushes, but I would guess this would to be wise. Or even allowed I shall see if the council do anything. I won't hold my breath as I asked for a bin to be put in down our road as our nearest ones are quite a distance away. Not heard anything as yet......

[sjp]

if they over hang your property then you can cut them back but you should return the prunings as keeping them is technically thieft but as they are growning over a public footpath and you you cut them back then you could be charged with criminal damage worst case that is

 

if you report them to the council try highways deport as they 'own' the footpath and reort it as an obsructed right of way and make sure they give you an incident or log number as you might need to chase it up but don't expect it to get sorted over night as the land owner will have at least 30 days to comply and thats from when the council write to them which could take a month at least

[Looney]

Hmm, this is interesting as I have a similar dilemma.

 

A house we walk past on the way to school has shrubs/ bushes growing up and through and over their front railings. The path is pretty wide, well it should be if the bushes hadn't grown out so far over it. We have to walk single file to fit on the pavement and it got to the point that we were having to duck as well. A bit awkward when pushing a pushchair and with a 4 year old in tow.

 

I put a very polite note through the door asking the owners to cut back the bushes....and they did.....but I swear they only took a couple of inches off!! Do I now go to the council?!

[Geoid]

The Highways Act 1980 is quite clear on this

 

Cutting or felling etc. trees etc. that overhang or are a danger to roads or footpaths.

 

Where a hedge, tree or shrub overhangs a highway or any other road or footpath to which the public has access so as to endanger or obstruct the passage of vehicles or pedestrians, or obstructs or interferes with the view of drivers of vehicles or the light from a public lamp, or overhangs a highway so as to endanger or obstruct the passage of horse-riders,a competent authority may, by notice either to the owner of the hedge, tree or shrub or to the occupier of the land on which it is growing, require him within 14 days from the date of service of the notice so to lop or cut it as to remove the cause of the danger, obstruction or interference.

 

For the purposes of this section the following are competent authorities—

(a)in relation to a highway for which the Minister is the highway authority and which is in a district or London borough, the Minister and also the council of the district or, as the case may be, borough;

 

(b)in relation to a highway for which a local highway authority are the highway authority, that authority and also if the highway is situated in a non-metropolitan district, the council of that district.

 

©in relation to a road or footpath that is not a highway, the local authority in whose area the road or footpath is situated;

 

and “hedge, tree or shrub” includes vegetation of any description.

 

Contact your local council.

[Redwing]

I honestly dont mean to be rude but why not knock on the door and politely explain or pop a note through the door? if the owners have trimmed it but not enough they obviously arent adverse to a bit of hedge maintenance and would probably cut it back further if the problems were gently pointed out

 

Contacting the council is a bit like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut IMHO

[ohcarolina]

Looking at it from another point of view:

 

I am responsible for a hedge that overhangs a public footpath alongside my house and a couple of years ago West Sussex County Council wrote to me advising that it was overgrown (which it was) and that if I didn't trim it back they'd do it and charge me.

 

Our local Council (Crawley) has written to other neighbours whose hedges (when they grow) encroach on the pavement requesting that they trim them back and keep them that way.

 

Whilst I agree with Redwing that we should be able to politely request that someone trim their hedge etc, you simply can't know if your theoretically mild mannered neighbour is in fact your next door nutter. My (slightly weird) neighbour became my next door nutter and poured nail polish over my car because she thought that I smashed the front and rear windscreen on her car (I didn't, nor would I!). It must have been one of the other nutters.

 

Caroline