They work for you
Overgrown or dangerous trees are one of my most regular complaints as a councillor.
What began as a seedling 20 years ago is now a 30 foot giant, shedding leaves over gardens, attracting birds to nest (and perhaps foul below them), blocking light and view, getting tangled in telephone wires or obscuring street lights.
Yet Rutherglen is a place of trees – lining the broad avenue of the historic Main Street, adorning Overtoun Park, or adding to the attraction of innumerable local gardens and wild places.
Planning laws require that trees should be preserved or planted as part of any planning development. So new housing estates will require to contain suitable trees.
The Cathkin Relief Road, currently being built between Fernhill and Blairbeth/Burnside, will replace or plant a large number of trees.
Some trees may even have a tree preservation order on them. Trees help eliminate carbon emissions and contribute to saving the earth from global warming.
The council’s tree experts will investigate complaints about dangerous or overgrown trees on council-owned land. They may prune trees which are a problem, but will not usually cut down a healthy tree.
Roads officials require periodically to make sure that tree branches overhanging roads are pruned to avoid interference with visibility for pedestrians or motorists or problems with telephone wires or street lights – it is the duty of householders to deal with overhanging trees from their own gardens which cause such problems.
Residents may have rights against their neighbours too. The High Hedges (Scotland) Act 2013 allows people to apply - for a fee - to the council for a high hedges order if their enjoyment of their property is adversely affected by a high hedge (a row of two or more trees/shrubs which form a barrier to light) of two metres or more. Thoughts on Trump The US Presidential debates are fascinating but enormously depressing.
The obscene and demeaning comments about women made by Donald Trump would have seen a British politician sacked within hours.
Some Republicans have repudiated him yet others who claim to believe in oldfashioned family values continue to support him.
It is a mystery how they manage to square family values with their backing for Donald Trump – or indeed with the absurd free-for-all on firearms ownership which has contributed to such a lethal level of gun killings in the USA.