Jon Lad

It's difficult to say whether £400-£800 is realistic because you don't say how long you've been in the industry before setting up in January, also what else you'd be bringing to the table in terms of kit and / or personnel along with the truck and chipper; to estimate what you might be able to charge.

Two yew trees trimmed to form.

Recent TPO applications and CA notifications that I've made to a local planning department to carry out crown reductions have been declared invalid; due to them not being: "sufficiently accurate or clear". I had stated that the crown was to be reduced by (eg) 2 metres all round and for many years this has been acceptable, prior to that a description of the percentage that the canopy was to be reduced by had been, eg 20% reduction all round; then the suggested amount in metres of the reduction was preferred to a percentage. However they now require: the current height of the tree; the current spread of the crown; the proposed reduction of the height; the proposed reduction of the spread at each aspect eg "laterally reduce crown spread by 2 metres at east aspect"; the final height of the tree and the final spread of the canopy. I wondered whether anyone else has had similar experiences with their applications or notifications, due to a change in the crown reduction specifications required by tree officers in other planning departments?

I’ve set young lads on in the past, only to have them leave once they’ve learnt enough to (sort of) get by with. I haven’t bothered since the last. I didn’t think it worth my effort or time training someone, to only not get the benefit from them working with me for a few years; after they’d reached a decent, commercial skill level. If you can get a good subby climber, who’s on the same wave length as yourself work-wise ; it’s like finding gold. Good call re buying a MEWP, a pal of mine has one and since he got it rarely needs subby climbers now.

I have found the old saying about relationships in business to be more and more accurate the longer that I’m in business: “How it begins, is how it goes.” If you start by accommodating folk - late starts, early finishes, random days off with little notice given, paying them early so they can afford their rent / car loan or repairs etc. Then in my experience, they will never stop expecting that and suddenly turn into wonder-worker; they’re just going to want you to continue doing the same or seek for you to accommodate them even more.

I had thought that was Chris Packham clinging to the machine. 🤔

With those slender points to the leaf stalks, could it not be a Rhus of some type? What height is it?

Great video! Thanks for posting that.👍🏻

IMG_3762.MOV

You did well to get it looking like that, given how far the customer wanted it bringing down to. 👍🏻

Thanks so much for posting that. 👍🏻

I have been invited to join one locally a few times but never have because of the reasons others have already mentioned: you're tied to weekly morning meetings; folk in it not really understanding what work you do / don't do and then recommending you for what you don't; also being expected to recommend someone that you've no idea is any good at what it is that you're recommending them for, with the potential blow-back that could create if they're not. In my view, there are better uses for your time and money to generate enquiries and work than this.