Should I plant shrubs in the 1m strip of my front garden that is owned by the council?

DaveMapp

Hi,

My house is end of terrace facing a road. To the left is a row of 3 houses that are at 90 degrees to the road so that these houses face the side of my house and my front garden with a path that runs alongside for access. 

At the moment the front garden is just a large patch of scruffy grass which is far too inviting for every passing dog to do its business on so we have decided to enclose it partially to deter dogs or perhaps their owners from letting them do their business. 

The issue is that according to the deeds, the boundary of our property only reaches as far as our back garden fence which leaves a 1m strip of no mans land between what is legally our property and the path that runs alongside. There is nothing to delineate it or mark it as separate and we have always mowed and maintained it. We are planning to put some flower beds in around the border so if we were to strictly stick to what is “ours” we would have to plant the bed 1m in from the actual edge of the garden which would look somewhat strange. Obviously if we do plant in the strip of council owned land there might be potential repercussions. 

What would you do? 

Cheers

Dave 

Davesnave

I do what I want to do and negotiate from there, especially if what I'm doing is an improvement. So long as not much money is involved there would seem to be little to lose here, although the strip could be carrying services and therefore liable to be dug up at some point in the future.

Keep cultivation to a sensible depth and await developments. There will most likely be none.

NewShadow

Agreed - Assuming anything you plant/place isn't of the sort which can do damage or be expensive to remove and that you accept you won't have any rights for it to be 'made good' if it needs to be dug up in the future. 

If someone complains, the worst that might happen is the council may send you a letter - If the council choose to pursue the matter to prevent a precedent being set and everyone doing similar, then you may be sent a bill for costs - namely labour to remove the plants - and even then only if you fail to comply with their rules and requests to remove the plants yourself. 

rach_k

I'd put some inexpensive, possibly spiky, shrubs in that area and play innocent in the unlikely event that somebody challenged it.

"Oh I'm so sorry, I didn't realise as we've been mowing that bit for years.  Would the owner like us to remove the plants and then they can come and mow it every week?  Or, I'm happy to look after the shrubs if they're happy for them to stay."

retiredandskint

Along with two of my neighbours we had a strip of land that the services ran under.  We had all planted a hedge but has the road hadn't yet been adopted we were asked to remove them.  In the end an agreement was struck up that the hedge wouldn't exceed 18 inches (they've never been back to check) and no trees.  If for any reason the area needs to be dug up then it's our problem shrubs wouldn't be replaced.  We live in a small cul de sac and the footpath is the other side of the road.

Mutton_Geoff

DaveMapp said:

to deter dogs or perhaps their owners from letting them do their business.

Dog owners are taking a dump in your garden as well?

Reminds me of a Crank Yankers scene https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbYii_PivaQ

Mistral001

It is often a case of beauty is in the eye of the beholder .  In my neigbourhood, some people have planted on public land turning a piece of natural greenery into what looks like something you would find on a filling station forecourt.