Chris at eden

I was involved in one a while ago where we cantilevered the last metre or so of the house to avoid the RPA. Bonkers really but that's what they wanted. I have one now which is similar to this one. Single storey rear extension, 2m projection. There is a knackered old oak with no visibility but still has a TPO recently made. I said fell the tree, TO said no, I said go to appeal but they don't want to so they are reducing the projection to 1m. What's the point!

Looks like a slight variation on the Abby Pynford system. Be careful how involved you get with specifying engineering works as it is outside of your remit or expertise. Your advice should be coming from a tree protection point of view so if you spec the works make a point of saying it needs to be signed off by a competent person. Ideally you would work with the engineer to spec the works. Remember if you spec that system you will need a specialist for to install and its expensive. Most builders kick off when you start talking about hand digging in my experience. Ruskins will do your arispade work for just under £1k a day inc. VAT (2015 prices - last time I used them) so yes expensive but the LPA may insist. Depends on the TO. Cheers

Tunnel is quick but very industrial. The ferry feels like part of the holiday. I prefer to sail at sunset and then drive to somewhere close like Lille for first night stay. By the time the cliffs of Dover disappear from view you can walk to the other end of the ship and see France. I did the tunnel at xmas and didn't see any camps. South of France is cool if you like old Roman cities but its hot so air con is a must. I've never found the traffic to be too bad in Aug with the exception of Monaco. There are better places to visit also in the south, Carcasonne, Nimes, Pont du Gard for example. Canoeing at Pont du Gard is a must. Annecy is good also, you can hire a small boat and bum around the lake for a few hours. It blows Windermere out of the water. Toll roads are great but as the other post said they can cost. I always use them though as it takes forever to get anywhere otherwise. The none toll roads tend to be like country lanes much of the time.

The Khan case was presented by the defence that she couldn't be negligent as she could be expected to know that trees caused damage. Something like that anyway. The judge didn't agree from what I remember. Something about the paper she was reading in court and the number of articles which are in that paper which relate to trees and subsidence over the last year or so. Delaware mansions is where they underpinned the whole building not just the damaged part to prevent future damage or continuing nuisance as they put it and claimed for the lot. The council objected to this and lost, got hit with a £1m bill.

Can't see what is landmark about it!!! Not the first time a resident has sued the council over damage and won. 400mm foundations is a joke even by conservatory standards.

If you think it will fall before the six weeks put the five day notice in anyway and see what they do. If they refuse to allow the exemption you would be putting them on notice and the submission could still be considered to be your 211 anyway so the ball would be rolling. Also, if there is a risk they should cordon off. If they don't that is just irresponsible.

There is no exemption for dangerous and that is why, its open to interpretation. The exemption is 'an immediate risk of serious harm'. Such as a hanging branch, a partial root plate failure, a split compression fork. Something which could fall without warning. Its not, oh it could fall if its windy in a few days. It would need to be, it will definitely fall in wind and may before then anyway. Its not the council, that is what the regs say. I've processed these for the LPA and what I would do is say no its not exempt but submit as a 211 notice and I'll sort it in a couple of days anyway. That way you are dealing with the risk while not side stepping the regs and leaving yourself open to criticism. Not rocket science is it. The LPA should prioritise apps and notices based on risk anyway, not simply timeframe.

You can only use the five day notice for dead trees or for situations where there is an immediate risk of serious harm, for example the hanging branches. You can't use it just because the tree is declining, not unless the risk is immediate. Cheers

They are different terms: Reaction wood = is anatomically different wood which is laid down to reinforce areas which are over loaded such as the underside of a branch or leaning tree. Conifers lay down compression resistant reaction wood with lots of lignin on the underside of the lean. Sort of like a prop. Broadleaves lay down tension resistant wood on the upper side of the lean with lots of cellulose to sort of winch it up like a guy rope. Bit of a clumsy description but hope it makes sense. Ultimately it has a bio-mechanical function. Wound wood = is produced in response to wounding and is made up primarily of parenchyma cells which are pumped full of phenolic chemicals which as we all know are extremely toxic to micro-organisms. It function is to prevent infection mainly. It is also apparently self replicating similar to cambium although I don't have a reference for this other than Dave Dowson - good enough for me though. If the wound resulted in extra loading you may get reaction wood in there also but Shigo describes that as wound wood. Callus = is the growth you get on a cutting and is the point of root or shoot initiation, ultimately made up of cambium. The important distinction is that callus is undifferentiated whereas wound wood and reaction wood are both differentiated. Cheers

Lightening or squirrels is not a bad shout. Difficult to see what else would cause it at that height. Inspection outcome is probably the same though and dependent on target and how much you can see from the ground. For the record the growth around the wound isn't reaction wood or callous, its wound wood. Cheers

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.