Who should take care of it?

[brassmonkey001]

Following on from this thread the tree in question is a Crack Willow.

It is situated alongside a river and near a bridge which is part of a B.O.A.T.

Now this limb it has shed has fallen across and into the river and also on to the bridge thus blocking traffic. I know that the council or the Highways authority have a duty to maintain the lane commensurate with it's use but I'm led to believe bridges are not their responsibility. The local water authority perhaps?

The other thing is that there are a few trees that have fallen into the river from both sides of the river (different landowners) which aren't helping the flow of water.

Obviously the first port of call would be the landowners but I know that one is not interested in fetching his trees out of the water, so who is responsible for keeping the river clear?

 

This is the second large limb the tree has dumped across the river and bridge in 5 years.

[skyhuck]

This is the second large limb the tree has dumped across the river and bridge in 5 years.

 

Who sorted that one??

[pgkevet]

Is the river under any responsibility from the waterways authority?...likely if parts are navigable or used for pleasureboats. Otherwise I'd guess it is the responsibility of the bank owners whether they like it or not...it's their tree.

The bridge would probably come under waterways if a navigation..like rail bridges being part of the railways..otherwise it has to be highways and council..

 

But a classic mess of different departments that are supposed to be part of oen country

[brassmonkey001]

Who sorted that one??

 

TBH I can't remember. We cleared the lane ourselves to make it passable, as I did this morning, but as for who got rid of the limb in the river last time I'm not sure.

 

It's not a navigable river at all. Especially with all these trees falling in it! There's around 8 -10 trees in it within about half a mile each side of the bridge.

Like I said, the landowners aren't interested in doing anything unless they're forced to.

 

The one that fell this morning isn't even the closest to the bridge, there are 3 or 4 nearer ones that could potentially drop on someones head if they feel like it.

 

My concern, apart from the danger to people if another should fall, is how many knocks the bridge can sustain? If the bridge gets damaged and put out of action then it's going to make for interesting times.

Edited August 1, 2011 by brassmonkey001

[eggsarascal]

Ring the Environment agency, they look after rivers and may make the land owners sort out the fallen trees or they may send out one of their own woking partys to sort the problem.

[skyhuck]

Trees in rivers can be a good thing.

[brassmonkey001]

Trees in rivers can be a good thing.

 

How so?

It's a very small river, more like a brook. It was nice and clear and free flowing a couple of years back. Now it's murky and sluggish. It's silting up and starting to clog up with weeds due to the reduced flow rate.

Apparently the water downstream is extracted for Wolverhampton.

 

It'll be interesting next time theres a big flood. There'll be all kinds of stuff collecting and backing up at the bridge.