Falling Bough

[si36]

Tell that to a load of jobsworth ramblers and see who ends up moving the branch/limb.

Ideally, local authority would move it, but depending on location, access etc, it usually falls on the landowner to keep the PROW clear. I know the textbooks prove me wrong, but in reality and all that.

I've dealt with cases exactly like this and most of the time nobody notices, but if you get the passionate ramblers involved, they're all over the landowner like a rash, even if the offending bough is nothing to do with them.

 

If it is a nice bit of fire wood and we can get our van right to it then we do it

[treequip]

Tell that to a load of jobsworth ramblers and see who ends up moving the branch/limb.

Ideally, local authority would move it, but depending on location, access etc, it usually falls on the landowner to keep the PROW clear. I know the textbooks prove me wrong, but in reality and all that.

I've dealt with cases exactly like this and most of the time nobody notices, but if you get the passionate ramblers involved, they're all over the landowner like a rash, even if the offending bough is nothing to do with them.

 

Even so no such duty exists, that land owner can tell them to go forth and multiply, most of the ones I know do just that. The red sock brigade can rant all they want.

[si36]

Notice can be served under the highways act (154) for encroaching vegetation to be done within 14 to 28 days or the council can do it and bill landowner costs. Last year we were sent on course and we are supposed to check trees within falling distance of rights of way but this would be a full time job for a team of blokes just in the area I cover. It is a bit of a grey area and generally we just clear when the trees have fallen if we dont know who the landowners are

[ChrisG]

You would also put yourself at risk if you know dangerous trees are shedding off boughs and did nothing about it. If someone was struck and it could be proven that the landowner knew there was a risk, it wouldn't go down well in court.

 

My advice would be, move it (keep it for logs), tell the adjacent landowner that they're trees are dangerous and stick up a couple of signs warning of the danger until remedial works are undertaken.

 

Cover ones backside!

[farmer rod]

You would also put yourself at risk if you know dangerous trees are shedding off boughs and did nothing about it. If someone was struck and it could be proven that the landowner knew there was a risk, it wouldn't go down well in court.

 

My advice would be, move it (keep it for logs), tell the adjacent landowner that they're trees are dangerous and stick up a couple of signs warning of the danger until remedial works are undertaken.

 

Cover ones backside!

 

Chris it was my tree that dropped a bough onto next door, and the footpath. My relief that it hadnt hit a fence (the usual port of call for everyone elses wood falling onto my side) was tinged with concern as to what would have happened of it had hit someone.

 

The covering my backside issue is dealt with by the insurance man, he would probably use a different phraseology: if you know what I mean:blushing:

 

I will go and look at the tree again tomorrow, but from where I stood this morning it looked like one of our better specimens

 

If there is any chance its a liability, then its coming down and going on the pile for chipping.

 

Curiously in the ELS/HLS (environmental) scheme that we are just about to enter, we are required to leave all standing and fallen deadwood where it is, which is great for woodpeckers but a worry for bullocks etc.

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

I would have thought that the degree to which the tree should be managed to prevent injury/damage, would depend entirely upon the frequency of use of the land adjacent to it. A boundary hedge in a field would tend to be such a low use area for people that more serious defects could be allowed. The foreseeability of the bull being injured would depend on size of the field, stocking density etc. The H+S Act would surely not apply to cattle, although the Occ Liability Act 57 would cover damage to goods?

 

An interesting observation (and I appreciate you're only able to comment on the detail I provided, which is significantly abridged version of the recordable detail), however, frequency of use is pretty irrelevant, a farm is a place of work, ergo, H&SaW does apply (not in the case of the bullock, but in the case of the farmer who could just as easily have been going about his lawful business on his land.) The hazard existed, the fact that it impacted the bullock rather than the farmer is a matter of coincidence.

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

That's just my view ):0)

 

The insurance company said "bullx" anyway!

 

Farmer can't be bothered to pursue it any further ):0(

[Paul Cleaver]

Heavy mast year.

 

Acorns adding weight to over extended branches

 

 

http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/ecology/33281-mast-year.html

 

.

 

yes I remember the same thing happening several yrs ago