Chris at eden

I also do Picus readings, let me know if you need a second quote. [email protected] Cheers

To add to what Jules said about a reduction in height and spread would reduce wind loading. It would also reduce the fall radius so the issue of it being just within falling distance of the house could also be addressed by cyclical crown reductions. Worth considering.

Hi Simon Further to your msg posted yesterday I am happy to quote for any surveys you may have. I am based in the Midlands but cover Northern and Southern England as well as Wales. I am qualified to level 6 and have PTI cert, and currently working on my Chartered Arb. In terms of insurance I have £1m PI, £5m PL, and £10m EL. Experience wise I have been working in the industry since 1990 since leaving school (as trainee and tree surgeon) and have been working purely doing surveys and reports since 2005 although I was doing them part time earlier than that. I also provide expert representation at planning committee and planning inspectorate appeals. Services I provide include; risk surveys and risk management strategies, BS5837 impact assessments, method statements, etc. with all plans completed as CAD drawings, mortgage reports, structural damage investigations including subsidence, TPO advice, amenity assessments, appeals and objections. I am competitively priced and happy to work to whatever arrangements suit you. If you wish to discuss then please feel free to give me a call or drop me an email. Tel: 01902 475 001. [email protected] Cheers

Yes but part of the reason for the low risk is the effective risk management system we have in place. If you stopped felling dangerous trees then the risk would obviously increase. I know what you mean though, the risk is often over stated. Oh yeah, and everyone is a tree expert!!!

Or, struck by a falling wheelie bin while felling a tree.

As for the OP. The owner is responsible. As a domestic resident you can inspect your trees yourself. Highways have a higher level of duty in terms of inspection and record keeping. Look at the NTSG guidance.

Sort of except Highways Agency are central government. They only do trunk roads and motorways. General roads are local authority highway dept. The one metre thing is just a guide also. Could be more or less irrespective of fences. Some folk off set fences as you would need planning consent to install a 2m fence within 1m of the highway. Pull it back to 2m from the highway and its permitted development.

Cant open the link but the only reason you would need to replant in a CA is if you have felled in contravention or that the trees was dead / imposing an immediate risk. You would then become subject to section 213, but that's a duty, not something they can condition.

Its the same more or less. Circumference is just over three time diameter. 3.142 to be exact. So four times circ is 12 times dial. For the record though both are measured at 1.5m not DBH. DBH is 1.3.

Have they set a pre-commencement condition that you provide a tree report or has it not been determined yet?

I would imagine that is why they need planning, otherwise it would make sense to stay within PD.

Look pretty is kind of the point of TPOs, or to use the correct term visual amenity. The LPA wont allow you to hammer the tree just so you can reduce the pruning cycle. Nor would the planning inspectorate on appeal. Just the way it is.

LPAs usually start the clock at the time they validate. Bit cheeky probably but they get away with it. I would suggest that if you want to start the clock when they receive it you could just send it registered post. It would stop them saying we didn't get it until this date. Where I work they usually have two date stamps. One for the post room and another for environmental services. Guess which one we use. You are pretty stuffed on this one though. You could put in a complaint to the ombudsman I suppose but I doubt you would get far with it.

Yeah its a common sense thing really. There ought to be an exemption for clearance of epicormic but there isn't specifically. If they are street trees (which I assume yours are) you could claim that you are maintaining statutory clearance heights over the highway which would be exempt. 7500 TPOd lime trees is bonkers though for any authority.

The thing about the LPA being the council in general is in relation to an exemption only. LPAs or parks depts generally validate apps, no one else. Thinking about it I don't think they have to validate 211s as they can just ignore them and allow works. You don't really need a plan but what the regs do say is that the notice needs to contain enough information to identify the tree accurately. So if you have two oaks in a front garden then a plan may be a good idea. You could just go with the northern most oak though I suppose. TOs come in for a lot of stick on here and no doubt there are some pretty rubbish ones out there but there are also some good ones. I tell you something else. As you know work on both sides and there are some equally rubbish tree surgeons and consultants out there. I know one chartered arb who submits arb impact assessments that are no more than one paragraph.

Hi Gary A) I think it would depend who registers and validates it. If its the LPA then them although the TO may be happy to forward it. B) There is no requirement to submit a 211 on the one app and that is what requires the plan. I believe it came in in 2008. C) It used to be best practice to acknowledge receipt but I think the 2012 made it a requirement, certainly for TPOs anyway. Cheers

Technically you need consent but some TOs will allow it as kind of an informal agreement. Phone and ask the question.

Anno makes a good point. LAs are cutting budgets all over the place at the moment. I started Eden while working as a TO as a back up plan as I knew the cuts were coming. Its a thankless task also - whatever you do it annoys someone especially when it comes to TPOs. Not sure about the hard work and sleepless nights though. Running your own business is worse for this. Yes TO can be hard work and stressful but at least you can switch off when you go on holiday. You have to look after your client base when working for yourself so if someone emails when you are away, you have to answer even if its just a holding email. Its also very rewarding so swings and roundabouts really.

They should get you an interview as a junior TO. Whether you get the job then would be down to how well you interview and the competition. You are on the right track though. Senior TO jobs often ask for L5 or L6 though. If you go for an interview and don't get in ask for feedback on the interview and they will tell you where you were lacking. You can then fix this for next time. Good luck

Fell the tree - probably not going to happen though. You could try one of these temporary parking surfaces but it will look pretty rubbish. You could speak to an engineer to see if it is possible to use a pre-cast concrete slab fitted on mini-piles and if that would have a lesser level change. You wouldn't write the probably wont work in the AMS but you have to bring it to the attention of the client upfront. The spec would be hand digging avoiding the severance of structural roots and pruning smaller roots. Problem is if you find a large root that you cant work around.

Don't know who told you that but not according to the people I did it with. I did tech cert before L6 so can't comment on L4 but other said it was a big step up. Its not easy to schedule either. The workload is insane. You will need to work every night and every weekend if you want to do it in two years. You will also need to work through the holidays to catch up. It may be two years but the level is higher so you need to research more and I'm pretty sure their are more units. Not to mention the research project which is the real challenge. The landscape / nursery unit is at L5 and is the same as in L4. I remember it feeling like a bit of a break as the expectations of the AC were so much lower. My advice would be don't under estimate it but don't fear it either, its very rewarding. Just get stuck in and go for it.

Sorry wasn't referring to you when I said nonsense, more my early assignments. I wrote pages of work that was not marked as it was not relevant.

On the L6 you only get a word count on the research project - 10,000 plus or minus 10% I think from what I remember. If you submit pages of nonsense though they won't mark it. They will skim over and ignore and just mark the relevant bits. You soon get the hang of it, there is a lot of work at L6 and you don't have time to waffle, you wouldn't stay on top of the work and you would ultimately fail. Staying on topic and nailing the assessment criteria is part of the skill of working at L6.

Its not just the kerbs. Its the rest of the excavations for the drive. You cant use no dig because of the level changes that would be created next to the road, you will never meet up with the road in terms of levels.

Singularly no, but if all gardens in thd area do so because of Council policy the accumulative effect is significant. If the policy is then implemented elsewhere real problems are created. Spot on - but its no just policy. SuDS forms part of the Flood and Water Management Act so its legislative. I'm no expert on this but there is a lot of noise coming out of LPAs about it.