How do you get over the neighbours who rip the guts out of the neighbourhood?

googler

In short, we're in a triangle of three houses, with two shared boundaries in a "T" form. One neighbour applied for planning permission for a garage barely a metre from the boundary of the other two houses, where one line of the T had mature trees forming a "hedge" between. They're also trying to move the boundary between them and the other neighbour, and execute a land-grab from them.

I and the other neighbours objected to the planning app, but were overruled.

Work started Monday, all of the mature tree/hedge line is gone, and the neighbours have basically ripped the guts out of our neighbourhood. I watched as the tree surgeons felled the last, largest tree, and they turned and smiled as they did so, with a punching, clenched-fist, victory salute as I walked away.


For anyone who has been through something similar - how did you get over it?

Did you ever get beyond regarding the neighbour as the evil one, the one who rode rough-shod over you, selfishly pressing on despite your objection?

All I can see in my future is a black rage, a perpetual dislike or hatred of this neighbour, that will persist until either they move or we do...

doingitanyway

Sorry to read this. It is all very recent so your feelings are running high.
My area has been 'denatured' due to various extensions. Lovely trees have been lost over the past few years. I am aiming to move in the next few years.

foxy-stoat

You are better off moving to be honest.

Grenage

Life's too short to get worked up over it; plant some shrubs and trees along your side of the boundary.

[Deleted User]

Buy a house without neighbours.


I think people living on top of each other has been some awful social experiment and as we live more and more densely so social unrest will prevail.

SpiderLegs

googler wrote: »

For anyone who has been through something similar - how did you get over it?

Did you ever get beyond regarding the neighbour as the evil one, the one who rode rough-shod over you, selfishly pressing on despite your objection?

All I can see in my future is a black rage, a perpetual dislike or hatred of this neighbour, that will persist until either they move or we do...

Perhaps you should learn to understand that just because you object to something does not mean you have an automatic right to be listened to?
Whatever your objection was has been rejected. Not the neighbour’s problem that is it?

At the end of the day you lost the argument through a presumably fairly administered process. If you can’t get over this then you shouldn’t really live near other humans who may have a different perspective to you.

sillyhilly

There seems to be a common misconception in home ownership that just because it's always been like that, it should stay like that. That's not the case.

Whilst I have a moral issue with taking down trees, it is his land and his property, he has gone through all of the correct channels and, ultimately, you are getting worked up over the fact that he's took a tree down.

Personally, I would live-and-let-live, within reason, as he's probably adding value to a property and thereby adding value to yours.

Maybe when it's done, plant some more shrubbery and let him know how nice it looks (if it does) to bury the hatchet. Life is too short to be at work for half of the day and then being stressed at home over something which is, generally, irrelevant.

babyblade41

I hate it when trees are felled .. I would be angry too but not a lot you can do.

For me I'd plant my own hedge and get on with life.

No need to fall out, no need to enter into conversation either , it appears by the fist punch in the air there will be no common ground so be the better person

Davesnave

If the people who have cut the trees and now want the boundary re-assessed follow due process, they're entitled to act on whatever the outcome is.



It's when they don't go through the correct procedures that the real problems start.


You have the solution inside your own head. We can't help there.

FreeBear

Up until two years ago, I used to look out of my bedroom window and see a long line of poplar trees. These have now all gone, and some 70 houses thrown up on the land that the trees were masking.

On one hand, disappointed that the trees are gone, but they were riddled with disease, so had to go. Myself, and other neighbours benefited from a substantial quantity of free logs

As for a garage being built in a neighbouring garden, unless PD rights have been removed, or you are in a conservation area, there isn't much you can do to prevent construction. Sure, the trees would have masked the building to some extent, but without a TPO, the neighbour can cut them down with or without your permission. You now have opportunity to plant some trees of your choosing - Stick with native species such as oak, beech, poplar, and not thugs like leylandii.

caprikid1

Can I clarify, they built a garage within a meter of the boundary and removed some trees on their land ?.


Not being funny but most people in a town would be ecstatic is development was within a meter of their land. My Neighbours ripped up a hedge that on the plans was staying and I believed to be mine !


Given your reaction. Move but at some point again you will be faced with it again unless you buy your own island.