Jump to content

Recommended Posts

I came home from work last night to find my beloved tree and home to many squirrels had been cut down. I live in a private block with a beautiful garden. The tree was my only privacy from the road and the top deck of the Crystal Palace bus that passes every 15 minutes. I rang the management company this morning and apparently the insurance company had instructed it to be removed. The tree wasnt close to the building or the road. Do you need planning permission etc to take down a tree?

If you live in a conservation area, permission must be sought from the council. If a tree has a preservation order on it, ditto. In both cases, if the tree represents a threat in terms of damaging foundations etc. then permission will be given but sounds like this isn't the case where you are.


If you're not in a conservation area and if the tree had no T.P.O. then your management company are within their rights.

Some boroughs (I don't know whether Southwark is one) place an 'automatic' preservation order on all trees above a certain girth - on the basis that they are (or must be, at that size) an established part of the environment and would need council permission to be removed. Sometimes this order reflects only trees that are visible from roads, or other areas with public access. This is separate from 'conservation areas' I believe. This sort of blanket authority is clearly more cost effective than having to assess individual preservation orders tree by tree.

Deewoffaz,


I'm sorry to hear about your tree, you have been rather unlucky there. If the tree had been planted by the council on the pavement near your house then it would certainly have been left alone, just like the one that has been wrecking the front of my house for the past few years.

Unfortunately, in spite of my insurance company 'dealing with the case' for past two years (premiums for that period ?1,500) there has been no action by the council. I was told that they were going to cut it back in January, then that it was being taken down by the end of June (Thursday - no sign of notices or tree surgeons). Meanwhile, the cracks in the front room are getting bigger and the front of the house looks a mess because I can't redecorate until this is resolves.

Southwark puts big financial values of their trees once they're established, ever thought they're the wrong type for the place where they've planted them!

What next - find a tree assassin?

Maxxi,


Remember that film; 'Day of the Hackall' - mind you, I think that was about someone who 'took out' hedgerows and shrubbery.

And of course there's the recent; 'Eat, Pray, Lop', Julia Roberts as a municipal council worker in leafy Rome. Shame that did'nt get released, but her other one of similar title was quite successful. Look out for her latest film with Tom Hanks in which she plays someone poor, but with perfect teeth - imagine that!

  • 2 weeks later...

According to my little chart from some subsidence advisory group or other, sycamores should be planted at over 17 meters away from your house in order to ensure they can't mess with your foundations. If you're in a block it may have considerably larger foundations than a single house, esp. if the house is old and the block is new - sorry, but personally i'd prefer to be you with a bad view than your neighbour with subsidence!


Shame you weren't consulted - i think trimming them back can work as a solution to reduce root growth?

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Latest Discussions

    • Ahh, the old "it's only three days" chestnut.  I do hope you realise the big metal walls, stages, tents, toilets, lighting, sound equipment, refreshments, concessions etc don't just magically appear & disappear overnight? You know it all has to be transported in & erected, constructed? And that when stuff is constructed, like on a construction site, it's quite noisy & distracting? Banging, crashing, shouting, heavy plant moving around - beep beep beep reversing signals, engines revving - pneumatic tools? For 8 to 10 hours a day, every day? And that it tends to go on for two or three weeks before an event, and a week after when they take it all down again? I'm sure my boys' GCSE prep won't be affected by any of that, especially if we close the windows (before someone suggests that as a resolution). I'm sure it won't affect anyone at the Harris schools either, actually taking their exams with that background noise.
    • Thanks for the good discussion, this should be re-titled as a general thread about feeding the birds. @Penguin not really sure why you posted, most are aware that virtually all land in this country is managed, and has been for 100s of years, but there are many organisations, local and national government, that manage large areas of land that create appropriate habitats for British nature, including rewilding and reintroductions.  We can all do our bit even if this is not cutting your lawn, and certainly by not concreting over it.  (or plastic grass, urgh).   I have simply been stating that garden birds are semi domesticated, as perhaps the deer herds in Richmond Park, New Forest ponies, and even some foxes where we feed them.  Whoever it was who tried to get a cheap jibe in about Southwark and the Gala festival.  Why?  There is a whole thread on Gala for you to moan on.  Lots going on in Southwark https://www.southwark.gov.uk/culture-and-sport/parks-and-open-spaces/ecology-and-wildlife I've talked about green sqwaky things before, if it was legal I'd happily use an air riffle, and I don't eat meat.  And grey squirrels too where I am encourage to dispatch them. Once a small group of starlings also got into the garden I constructed my own cage using starling proof netting, it worked for a year although I had to make a gap for the great spotted woodpecker to get in.  The squirrels got at it in the summer but sqwaky things still haven't come back, starlings recently returned.  I have a large batch of rubbish suet pellets so will let them eat them before reordering and replacing the netting. Didn't find an appropriately sized cage, the gaps in the mesh have to be large enough for finches etc, and the commercial ones were £££ The issue with bird feeders isn't just dirty ones, and I try to keep mine clean, but that sick birds congregate in close proximity with healthy birds.  The cataclysmic obliteration of the greenfinch population was mainly due to dirty feeders and birds feeding close to each other.  
    • Another recommendation for Niko - fitted me in the next day, simple fix rather than trying to upsell and a nice guy as well. Will use again
    • Looks great! but could it be possible to pinch the frames a bit tighter with some long nose pliers and add more struts to stop the tree rats getting inside? Also, the only issue with a mesh base is that it could attract rats towards your property.
Home
Events
Sign In

Sign In



Or sign in with one of these services

Search
×
    Search In
×
×
  • Create New...