Council owned tree

BTman

Hi all,
I have a grass verge outside my house with a small (12ft) tree. This tree grows red berries and makes a mess on the pavement once a year which is quite annoying.
I was thinking about having a dropped kerb installed and would really like a double width dropped kerb. With the tree in place I would only be able to have a single width dropped kerb.
What do you think is the best way (if any) of having this tree removed? I would be happy to remove it myself but I think that may be illegal without permission from the council.
Should I be honest and tell the council that I would like the dropped kerb or should I kick up a fuss about the mess caused by the tree and hopefully have it removed before I apply for the dropped kerb?
Has anybody had any success in having a council owned tree removed and how did they go about it?
Cheers.

lincroft1710

I believe there are only 3 ways of having tree removed

1) if it has caused subsidence (as happened to a small block of flats a friend lived in).

2) if it is rotten

3) if it is causing a hazard

I may be wrong but I can't see any council chopping a tree down for any other reason

2912pwil

It would of course be reprehensible to repeat the story of my friend who when faced with a problem tree in a neighbours garden waited until neighbour was out (and everyone else..) drilled a small hole down into the root, poured in some old engine oil and - voila! 6 months later, a dead tree.

The hole was covered up with dirt/mud/stuff...

Shamefull... hope it never happens again...

poppysarah

ask the council. tell them someone has slipped on the berries.


Seriously do NOTHING to the tree. There will be some tree hugger like me who'll record you damaging the tree and have you on the front page of the paper before you blink.

kittiej

Don't do the ring barking thing either. It's not pretty and you can seriously get into trouble.

tanith

Seems a shame to want a tree destroyed when you could already have a single dropped kerb and make do with that rather than be greedy and want a double one and destroy the tree in the process.. sorry but I'd rather see a tree even a messy one than another yard of concrete...

BTman

tanith wrote: »

Seems a shame to want a tree destroyed when you could already have a single dropped kerb and make do with that rather than be greedy and want a double one and destroy the tree in the process.. sorry but I'd rather see a tree even a messy one than another yard of concrete...

With a single kerb I would only be able to get one car off the road, with a double I would be able to get two cars off the road. Nobody can park on my side of the road anyway, so I don't know how that makes me greedy when it would free up two extra parking spaces for my neighbours.

Thanks for all your replies. Maybe I can find someone to accidentaly back a lorry into it..;)

edgex

Go to the council with this offer:

you will pay for a double dropped kerb
you will also pay for a replacement tree to be planted, maybe one that is more suitable, & is still native to the area, within x metres of the current tree

Debt_Free_Chick

BTman wrote: »

With a single kerb I would only be able to get one car off the road, with a double I would be able to get two cars off the road. Nobody can park on my side of the road anyway, so I don't know how that makes me greedy when it would free up two extra parking spaces for my neighbours.

Thanks for all your replies. Maybe I can find someone to accidentaly back a lorry into it..;)

You can't get two off the road with a single width kerb? Not even if you drive them on, one at a time?

Davesnave

Edgex's solution is sensible, but if you think you'll still have two cars in 5 years time I'd call you an optimist!

pmcx9

I had very similar problem which I brought to the councils attention. However 2 boughs of the tree had been damaged by a passing lorry and it was deemed an unbalanced, unhealthy specimen by the council and removed at their expense. They planted another young tree in a more appropriate place nearby.