Someone not abiding the law

[Joe Newton]

Hmm its a fair point.

 

I wonder how many people check for TPOs on each tree they work on.

[Gary Prentice]

We do. But then again we don't anybody. Solicitors haven't told new homeowners that they have TPO'd trees before. Had two wrong answers, ie no protection, from councils in the last two months when a second enquiry revealed that there was.

Struggling to even trust some planning departments at present.

[AA Teccie (Paul)]

Nowt against the AA Paul, at all. There are more general bodies such as Trust Mark, and Federation for Small Businesses, and whilst I don't know much about any of these bodies, including yours, I pride myself on being good at my job.

 

Such a sweeping statement from the reporter could be potentially damaging for the local firms who do a grand job independant of these governing bodies.

 

If "anyone" can be a member of the AA (as suggested above by an earlier poster) than how does that form any kind of distinction?

 

Joe, thanks for your reply here...and apologies for mine being so delayed.

 

Very quickly, Trustmark too offer an accreditation opportunity for tree surgeons which principally aims to safeguard the domestic sector, FSB is an organisation who support small businesses with general employment stuff, legal stuff, tax / insurance stuff etc. but is not relevant to a consumer, although maybe it shows the business is 'responsible' in its running (NOT to imply you're not if you're not a member!)

 

Local firms are the way to go for the domestic sector in particular and that's why we have increasing nos. of such under the new(ish) small business category of ARB Approved (now accounts for 42% of all contractors where 3 years ago it was only 18%.)

 

Lastly, the confusion between AA member, available on payment of a fee, but you are then bound by the Code of Ethics and Code of Prof. Conduct, AND subject to the formal complaints procedure, and an ARB Approved Contractor does prevail but with increasing nos. of LAs putting links on their websites to ours, which points directly at the 'Find a Tree Surgeon' (AKA ARB Approved Contractor) the outcome is the intended one.

 

To date, having assessed 10s of small business contractors nationally, ALL have said at the end how useful the process has been as their businesses fell better organised and structured and lots of questions had been answered.

 

Cheers..

Paul

[AA Teccie (Paul)]

Might be a silly question but with the council slapping TPO's on anything and everything could this be a honest mistake by a non rogue who forgot to ask the customer whether it had a TPO or not? I wouldn't expect a Silver Birch to have a TPO

 

I'm braced to be ridiculed if necessary....

 

With respect, don't rely on the customer to know, or sometimes to tell you even if they do know, as it is your responsibility to check...not least as it is YOU who will be prosecuted, potentially.

 

That said I would recommend you inform the client of your intention to check for legal protections, advising you're obliged to do so, giving them the opportunity to ask you not to if they so wish (we had a recent complaint of this nature which was difficult to defend.)

 

Lastly, as a former TPO Officer with an LPA we had many SBs protected...remember, whilst its often the Oaks / Beech / Cedars etc. involved, the legislation isn't species specific and we also had a (large) Portugese Laurel and Magnolia protected (albeit in a Conservation Area.)

 

Cheers..

Paul

[AA Teccie (Paul)]

We do. But then again we don't anybody. Solicitors haven't told new homeowners that they have TPO'd trees before. Had two wrong answers, ie no protection, from councils in the last two months when a second enquiry revealed that there was.

Struggling to even trust some planning departments at present.

 

Ideally make your TPO etc. enquiries by email, so there's a written record of such, and obviously don't proceed until you've had a formal response. OR, if you do call, make a record in your diary of whom you spoke to and when (date and time).

 

Cheers..

Paul

[treequip]

Ideally make your TPO etc. enquiries by email, so there's a written record of such, and obviously don't proceed until you've had a formal response. OR, if you do call, make a record in your diary of whom you spoke to and when (date and time).

 

Cheers..

Paul

 

And the problem with that is, some tree officers use it as an invite to view the tree with regard to an order where none previously existed, effectively making the entire authority into a conservation area.

 

Recording the conversation is as simple as recording. Most phones do that these days.

[AA Teccie (Paul)]

And the problem with that is, some tree officers use it as an invite to view the tree with regard to an order where none previously existed, effectively making the entire authority into a conservation area.

 

Recording the conversation is as simple as recording. Most phones do that these days.

 

In all honesty, and whilst I acknowledge this has happened in the past, with the ever declining resource on LAs I reckon they'll be focusing their attention on the trees that really justify a TPO and which are deemed to be 'under threat', i.e. where the TPO is expedient.

 

I've also had instances where tree owners and contractors have been aggrieved with TPO placed in instances like this but there's often no absolute guarantee you, as the competent, knowledgeable and experienced tree surgeon/arborist, will actually undertake the proposed works and so the TPO is deemed to be a mechanism to control standards, in effect.

 

Sorry, waffling again.

 

Hope you're well.

 

Cheers..

Paul

[Dan Lacey]

I resent the "most good tree surgeons will be members of the Arb Association" part. Why?

 

It's insinuating that if a company doesn't have AA accreditation than it's no better than these lop and top buggers!

 

Just because the company has AA status It doesn't mean it's a good company!! At the start they stick to all the rules and regs. But after time they get bigger and take on more men and all the men care about is the money. So you sir can stick AA up your ass.

 

 

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[AA Teccie (Paul)]

Just because the company has AA status It doesn't mean it's a good company!! At the start they stick to all the rules and regs. But after time they get bigger and take on more men and all the men care about is the money. So you sir can stick AA up your ass.

 

 

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Point taken, controlling standards and compliance is more challenging in a larger business but you should look at what the accreditation might be able to do for your business and not measure it against anybody elses performance.

 

Nothing in life is perfect...and that incs. the ArbAC Scheme, but it is more robust than it was previously. In all honesty, the ArbACs in question are probably working under contract for an organisation and it is principally their responsibility to supervise their activities. IF there's a problem and they bring it to our attention we will, and we do, thoroughly investigate it (the trouble is more often than not they don't flag it up.)

 

We do reassess, every two years now (previously every 5 yrs.), and we do reserve the right to do spot-checks at any time but we don't have adequate resource to undertake this very often.

 

Thanks for your post Dan.

 

Paul

[Graham]

Just because the company has AA status It doesn't mean it's a good company!! At the start they stick to all the rules and regs. But after time they get bigger and take on more men and all the men care about is the money. So you sir can stick AA up your ass.

 

 

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I went through an application for AA approval a long time ago '88 or '89 as I recall.

 

At that time you had to supply a list of completed, differing works so that they could inspect at the time of the visit. I supplied a comprehensive list.

 

On the day of the inspection everything went well and in the afternoon the inspectors wanted to look at completed works but didn't want to look at trees on the list. Instead they asked me for other examples which I struggled to think of given the short notice but managed in the end.

 

One site I took them to was divided into two. I'd done some reduction and thinning work on part of the site and an AA contractor had done work on the other. The standard of the AA contractors work was very poor; slack cable braces, topped trees. The inspectors commented on this but I told them it was the work of a different company. No names or anything implied.

 

So. I waited for a letter to arrive informing me of their decision which it duly did. Failed due to my lack of experience in the diffent disciplines of arb!

Everything else was absolutely fine.

 

It stank, reeked of Old Boys and school ties. I didn't fit in and then the local AA contractor, F.arbor had the audacity to offer me a job! I vowed then the AA would never receive a penny from me and they never have.

 

Of course it may be different now but old scars etc:001_smile: