Villagers’ fears over ‘Queen’s trees’
FAMILIES living in a village near Ashbourne fear that tall trees opposite their homes, which are the responsibility of the Queen, could fall on their houses during heavy gales.
Patches of grass on several Derbyshire housing estates are currently the responsibility of the Queen to maintain after developers went bust, and this includes a small orchard in Auden Close, Church Broughton, which has been left in the hands of the Crown for the best part of 30 years.
The Walton-based developer which built the scheme went into insolvency in 1994 and, as a result, the patch of land it was responsible for maintaining reverted to the Crown, which does not manage its upkeep.
At a meeting this week, South Derbyshire District Council is set to take over control of various patches of public open space which are not being maintained, with some linked to their respective developers going bust. In relation to Auden Close, the council says: “The public open space is unadopted in part, due to company liquidation. This is now with the Crown who will not maintain it.”
It says the parish council does not want to take on the site and that neighbouring residents do not want to form a management company to maintain it.
Julian Shirley, a retired National Coal Board worker who has lived on the site since 1989, said residents were increasingly “concerned” about the potential damage falling trees could cause.
He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that a tree had completely fallen down in heavy
winds around a month ago, and a second tree which was already on its way down had also fallen over in the past couple of weeks.
Mr Shirley says residents were in a hapless state of limbo because they did not own the trees and nobody was directly responsible for them, and there is a tree protection order on the site so no work could be carried out.
He said: “The residents had used to maintain them but the trees got larger and larger over the years and we have been getting concerned because some of the trees looked pretty ropey. There is no one we could contact and we could not do any work due to the TPO, and we couldn’t get anyone in to trim the trees because they aren’t our trees.
“It became a matter of safety and there seemed to be no mechanism to ensure the place was kept safe. It was a really well-used piece of open space in the first 10 years and got more use than the park. People had barbecues, parties, played tennis, football and hockey on it.
“During lockdown a family used it for picnics and it is also a part of the route which dog walkers take around the fields. It is a vital bit of greenery.”