Council won’t stump up for work on overgrown trees
FOLIAGE IS DAMAGING NEIGHBOUR’S GARDEN – BUT ‘OUR TENANTS ARE RESPONSIBLE’
IF your neighbour’s overgrown trees are damaging your garden, who’s responsible for solving the problem? This is the frustrating question confronting a Wigston woman after the council admitted it has given her “mixed messages” on the issue.
The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, first reported the overhanging tree branches of her neighbour’s council house to Oadby and Wigston Borough Council during the first lockdown.
She was told they wouldn’t be coming out to look at the garden of her semi-detached house because of the coronavirus and she decided to leave it as she was pregnant at the time.
But since then, the trees have grown more, damaging the fence on her property and making it difficult to hang clothes on her washing line.
After another call to the council “someone eventually came out and said they would need to cut back the trees and cut down the one closest to my neighbour’s house, as it was at risk of damaging the house’s foundations,” said the woman.
“But I was told I would have to wait until October 1, as it was nesting season, which I understood.”
After yet another round of phone calls, a housing officer called round – but this time the woman was told it was the tenant’s responsibility to keep their garden in check.
But the woman thinks that this is too much to expect of her neighbour, a single parent of two children, as they would need to pay for a tree surgeon.
She said: “How do they expect my neighbour to keep it in check? They are in a council house for a reason and already have to look after their children - why does the council think they will be able to afford the hundreds of pounds, minimum, that it would cost?
“The trees were there long before this tenant took over – it wasn’t their choice to be given trees, and have even said they’d happily have all of them removed.
“Expecting someone to pay out hundreds of pounds to handle trees they had no choice over seems ridiculous.
“At one point the council were willing to cut it all back and even chop a tree down, but now it’s suddenly the tenant’s burden? I think the council should handle it.”
The woman is looking to get the situation resolved over the winter, so their garden can be safe to use next summer.
She said: “I have a nine-month-old baby and a dog who will both want to enjoy the garden next year - but until the trees get cut back and we can replace the damaged fence, that can’t happen.
“It’s unsafe for my family and my dog, and I shouldn’t have had such difficulty trying to get this sorted.”
Chris Eyre, housing manager at Oadby and Wigston Borough Council, said: “Our tenants are responsible for the maintenance of their own gardens, which includes maintaining hedges and trees to a reasonable height.
“I apologise for any mixed messages that she has received and we will investigate the circumstances which led to her being given such differing views.
“We will continue to work in supporting our tenant to ensure an appropriate resolution is found to respond to the woman’s concerns.”