LET THERE BE LIGHT!
Fury of neighbours cast into the shadows by top Tory’s untamed trees
A TORY minister and her husband are embroiled in a row with angry neighbours who claim they are being cast into darkness by trees the couple refuse to cut.
A number of tall trees at Helen Whately’s £1.35million farmhouse block sunlight and regularly shed piles of leaves on neighbouring gardens, it is claimed.
The 44-year-old social care minister – who is the MP for Faversham and Mid Kent – and her company director husband Marcus bought the house near the market town of Faversham last year.
Residents living in the row of council and private cottages beside the junior minister’s property say they have repeatedly requested that they prune the deciduous trees, but the couple have failed to deal with the problem.
Now they have been further angered because, they say, Mr Whately has told one neighbour, Marilyn Kemsley, 67, to pay for tree surgery costs herself.
Mrs Kemsley said: ‘The Whatelys bought the farmhouse about this time last year, and we’ve had a running battle with them ever since. The trees are 50ft to 60ft high. The lady next door to them lives in perpetual twilight. She has to have lights on all day long. It’s dreadful. We don’t get any sunlight from about 3pm onwards.’
Grandmother Mrs Kemsley added that Mr Whately, 43, had arranged for some low-hanging branches that were banging on one cottage roof to be removed.
But she claimed he has refused to carry out further work, and has told her in a text: ‘I’m happy to consider other works if you want to pay for them, or to discuss other ways forward.’
Mrs Kemsley said the neighbours affected cannot afford to pay for tree surgery. Mrs Whately declined to comment.