Gary Prentice

This is an argument I’ve had with planning departments who insist that you search online. When you ask how regularly the website is updated, you normally get a long silence. To date, nobody I’ve spoken to has known and had to ‘’come back ‘ with an answer.

Cover up incompetence! As if. My favourite personal experience was a planning department TWICE refusing an application to fell, on an order that hadn’t been confirmed. I saw a interoffice memo, between planning and legal, sent after the second ‘refusal’ asking for the order to be confirmed. This was pre 2012 when orders could be confirmed at anytime. This one was eight years between serving and confirming. I’ve heard of thirteen years in another case.

The first thing a Magistrate wants to know is if a TPO is in place. That’s all the LA have to prove, apart from that it’s been contravened. Ask the LA to show you the TPO!

Are all the stems being milled? It would a waste for them to go for firewood!

Could the offer of a caution be because, "Well we wanted to keep the trees, which were previously under good management on council land, so we should have had a TPO in place when we sold the land. But we didn't and when the owner , after checking the trees weren't TPO'd, started to remove them, we realised that we'd cocked up. So, to save face, we'll get everyone in for a stern discussion to scare them enough to leave the trees alone. We'd really like to serve a TPO, but that would be admitting that we had no authority to halt the works in the first place.... We'll encourage the 'caution' approach then. Everyone agreed?" Nah, that would never happen. Or would it?

You couldn’t make it up. The LA refused to validate the application for three weeks, until I changed the references on my plan to match their thirty odd year old TPO plan So eleven weeks after that, I rang them to ask why I haven’t received a decision notice? ”It hasn’t been determined yet!” I did apologise, eventually, to poor lad in planning when he told me. Seems like they are apply ‘rules’ when it’s for their own benefit.

You don’t have to give notice to see TPOs, they ‘must’ be available for inspection. If they’re not on the website, tell the LA to get their act together and cart on.

Probably a little quieter, but the markets continually evolving. Commercially there seems to be fewer site clearance jobs about, those that do crop up seem to HA led. Domestic works a bit slower, but that seems weather dependent. Lousy over Easter so few calls, Nice May Bank holiday followed by a raft of calls. Its at a comfortable level atm.

You're optimistic if you think it's only a four hour drive

I'm certainly not everyone, but I do. I don't understand Apps, or the rewards to the app makers, but this one is a keeper. I have a couple of i-phones, one's a work(employment) phone and the others my own business phone - which I've refused to update solely because of the Fungi App. It's a reference that goes everywhere with me, normally provides enough to give me confidence in my identification (and if it doesn't I can ask Mr H). There's a couple of things that I think might improve it though. One is some cross-sectional pictures to help the Ident. (I know I'm being selfish) and the second is that I think that it's to cheap. Like I said, I don't understand the market, but I think the market is the more arboricultural than general public. It's probably not going to do hundreds of thousands of downloads, but a smaller number within a niche market who realise the value of it. If you put a new version out compatible with whatever Apples current OS is and said it was £30-£50, I'd be down-loaded it without a second thought. Just my two-pence worth anyway.

I'm sure that somewhere in the Highways act it's illegal to interfere with a road sign. She's going to be somewhat peeved when 'the man' reads your admission of guilt on a public forum and she gets nicked

I think it's a lot less than that 2-3 minutes at most, at a time. ( depending on the road - dual carriageways probably entirely different!)

No! Honest!!!

My LA wants around £800 + Vat just for a temp parking restriction plus extra cash if you want cones out to prevent anyone parking. So a Rd closure They charged their own Arb team over two thousand for one recently I’m told. You seem to be financially discouraged for playing by the rules and doing things properly

I agree. I used a whillans once and that was once too often. If harnesses hadn’t have improved we’d be doing a lot more work out of Mewps.

A blonde moment Jules?

Aspenarbs has, according to some other threads I’ve seen, and a (blue) boat

Without checking I think burn or bury on site is an attempt to contain the infection in the locale. One of the big vectors of pathogens is moving timber for firewood (private use or commercially). The Emerald ash borer is a classic example But saying all that, bleeding canker is probably so wide spread now that the online advice is out of date.

Really gets to you, that sun, when you’re sat in the beer garden

I always provide a written quote for ‘older’ clients if we’re not dealing with a younger relative. A real safeguard to ourselves when they ‘forget’ what was originally agreed and lump on a few hundred quids worth of work that “you said you’d do!”

Were you charging extra for working a Bank Holiday? I always would if the customer is insistant that it has to be done. Ive been surveying today, because I chose to get a bit ahead of my workload, but if the deadline meant that I had no choice other than to do so, the client would have to pay for it. Edit. And if after insisting you’re there at an arranged time, they can’t be arsed to be up and organised I’d be leaving immediately just due to their ignorance. It indicates their opinion of you and what you do, so it ain’t a good start to your working relationship. Good on you for leaving.

The field trip emails are going/have gone out for the Monday Field Trip with Klaus. My names been pulled out of the hat Anyone else heard that they’ve been ‘selected’?

We’ve ordered chipper knifes, took order, rang them a week later to be told they would be six to eight weeks. Thought we’d try their chains. Nothing arrived for a fortnight so rang them. Finally got to speak to someone who seemed to know what was going on, to be told they didn’t have what we’d ordered so it would be another three to four weeks - probably! How are they still in business?

Or serial selfie takers for their high level of intelligence.

Bit of a stalemate They're sat in the propagator beside my desk, keep watering them and they're not dying back (yet). I think that MP stay green for ages, even when dead, so I don't know. The temptation to take them out of their pots is almost overwhelming, but I think I'll wait awhile yet.