Neighbour damaging trees

[Paul in the woods]

Part of my woodland boarders an itinerant neighbour who once every couple of years turns up to clean out one of their ditches. Unfortunately they tend to venture onto my land, damaging my trees and dumping soil on my land which is mounded up against my trees. Rather than do a sensible job on their own ditch they tend to route water into my property expect me to sort out the mess.

 

A couple of years ago I raised the issue and they admitted they were in the wrong. Unfortunately they came back in December and did further damage which included digging out a channel right next to a large beech tree.

 

A few weeks ago I noticed the beech was leaning and it came down yesterday. Looking at the roots one side has rotted where the neighbour has dug out the channel over the last few years.

 

Reading some of the problem tree/TPO threads I would assume if I did this damage to a TPOed tree I would likely be in trouble. In my case the itinerant neighbour happens to be the council highways dept so would I have any recourse to claim damage?

 

I expect they will simply ignore my concerns even though their actions are likely to have caused the demise of a 25m 80 year old beech tree. Any constructive advice of how to proceed is welcome.

 

 

[dumper]

Take loads of pictures

[spudulike]

....and shoot them

[Will C]

I would of thought that by depositing there waste soil from there ditch they are in effect fly tipping. Also if they have damaged your tree on your land it could be seen as criminal damage unless the damaged roots have crossed the boundary and been damaged in the process of maintaining there ditch on there land (encroachment) in which case I reckon you would be wasting your time.

 

im sure someone will give you a proper answer rather than my un qualified thoughts. However one farm I know of did win a fly tipping case where old compost had been repeatedly tipped over a fence, I don’t know of the finer details tho.

[Paul in the woods]

I have taken lots of pictures.

 

I've raised the issue of fly tipping and criminal damage which they don't really disagree with. The problem I have is that they think they can do it as they tend to get away with it. I'd normally report fly-tipping to them for example and they're not going to enforce against themselves.

[Mark Bolam]

I refer the matter to my learned friend @kevinjohnsonmbe....

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

14 minutes ago, Mark Bolam said:

I refer the matter to my learned friend @kevinjohnsonmbe....

Catch 'em in the act, set them on fire, bury the smouldering corpses in the ditch....

 

Bosh.

 

Job done!

 

(PS - just as well have the Beech for firewood if it's down anyway)

[Mark Bolam]

I knew you wouldn’t let me down....

😊

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

Just now, Mark Bolam said:

I knew you wouldn’t let me down....

😊

You could fanny around with letters, photo’s, solicitors, claim for damages, civil action for trespass etc etc etc....

 

But that’d take ages, cost a bundle and no guarantee of 100% success either way...

 

LA don’t want staff ‘going missing’ on the job....  Probably be years before anyone actually noticed they were still drawing pay but haven’t been seen since the old king died. 

 

 

[Mark Bolam]

Reminds me of the bloke who went to his doctor and said -

’I think my wife has died’.

Doctor said -

‘What do you mean you THINK your wife has died? Why?’

 

’Well’, said the bloke.

’The sex is still the same, but the washing-up is starting to pile up’.