Council tree stopping me getting off driveway

Undervalued

emma_here said:

Sunsaru said:

canaldumidi said:

It's hard to see from the photo, but I'm dubious that the tree is obstructing the dropped curb.

You are expected to access your drive via the dropped curb, not by driving over any part of the raised curb on either side of it.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I suspect that due to the limited turning circle of your van, perhaps exacerbated by parked cars opposite, you have been starting to turn your vehicle as soon as you leave your drive (rather than when you reach the road) with the result that you end up crossing the pavement and bumping down the raised curb on one side or the other?

Unfortunately that is not permitted. If that is the case, I suspect the new tree is only preventing you from undertaking this non-permissable manourver.

Were you to drive straight forward to the dropped curb and then start your turn, you would a) not hit the raised curb and b) not hit the new tree.

The solution may be to get a smaller van or one with a tighter turning circle, or to do some kind of 3 or 5 point turn onto the road.

You may find a sympathetic council official willing to get the tree moved but I wouldn't hold your breath......

^^ This.

From what I can, what used to be grass is now a bald patch where someone keeps driving over it to get out of their drive. Although I sympathise with you, you've actually been getting away with it for 7 years and now the party is over.

No - i did zero damage, i am very careful. They dug the whole verge up in the entire neighbourhood to lay cables for superfast broadband and shoved the trees in shortly after

You are breaking the law by simply driving over the verge or indeed any part of the footway other than an a direct line from the dropped kerb to your driveway. Highways Act 1835 (?) from memory. Also from memory you can be fined up to £1000 and get three points on your licence. Not often enforced, a constable would need to catch you doing it, but I would be very careful what you wish for here!

There is a separate offence that can be used if damage is caused which, regardless of what you claim, must happen if you drive over it repeatedly in wet conditions.

Driving any vehicle (or herding asses, mules or swine!) on the footway is an offence and as far as I can remember the only exceptions are in an emergency or to enter and exit property in a direct line from an officially dropped kerb.

74jax

emma_here said:

74jax said:

daveyjp said:

The problem is people parking opposite driveways (which is selfish), not the tree.

We have a driveway and the people opposite park on the road as they don't have a drive (1 does, the other doesn't). It's not really selfish, they are parking outside their house, just happens to be across from our drive 🙄. 
Or road is narrow, so if we didn't have a drive we couldn't park outside our house, if they were already there. 
My husband drives on forward with the T6 so he can swing out easily, is that an option OP?

Backing out my van with the cars streetlight and tree is something i never tried as reversing is much harder with the visability. I could try it i guess but i need the back doors at the house to load up really and i already hit the house once reversing hahaha 

Ah OK, reversing in would be much harder for us with the cars opposite (and others cars on the drive), but much easier for us to reverse out due to how our steering works.

When you used to drive in /out, did you drive over where the tree is? Or is the tree now blocking your view? Could you drive in /out from the other way (sorry as a T6 driver/parker also in a residential area, trying to think of suggestions) 

Keep_pedalling

If you can get out without driving over the grass as you claim, I don’t see how the tree can be a problem as you can only hit it by driving over that very same area.

Norman_Castle

The tree is only a small part of the problem, its a long van and a narrow road with limited parking. It looks like you could cut back or remove the hedges on either side of your garden giving more width to get on.

jimbog

emma_here said:

 My neighbours are lovely people and I expect them to park outside their own property 

Having the expectation of being able park outside one's own property would quickly sour relationships with the neighbours 

Jude57

Just to add for clarity that the damage caused by vehicles driving repeatedly over areas not intended for vehicular access is not limited to churning up the grass and looking unsightly.

In this country, most utility infrastructure is buried, so while the OP mentions recent works for broadband, it's highly likely on an estate the age this one seems to be, other services are in the same location. That's water, waste water and sewage, electricity and gas, all underground. They are not installed in inaccessible locations for obvious reasons and the ground above them is not meant to support the weight of even a small family car regularly driving over, much less a 3.5t van. If those services are damaged and the OP is found to be responsible by driving her van over an area not meant for vehicles, the cost to her of repair and reinstatement will probably total a six figure sum. Never mind the inconvenience to neighbours.

Section62

emma_here said:

i am just flabbergasted at the small minded minds of council stuff. When i called the other day they wouldn’t put me through to the person in charge because they were working from home!! I said it must be easier if they are wfh! I work in investment banking and if i hid behind that joke of an excuse i could sell the moho as I wouldn’t have a job!!

From 13 December the official advice (in England) is to work from home if you can - but organisations, including councils, have been encouraging staff to work from home if they can throughout the pandemic.

So there's no 'joke' to that excuse.

And even in normal times residents phoning up to complain about trees don't get put through to "the person in charge", because if they took every call from someone who was unhappy about something they'd never have time to do anything else but take calls from unhappy people.

All organisations, not just councils, have systems in place to deal with complaints/queries at the lowest possible level, and then processes for complaints to be escalated through the system in a managed way.  If I phoned my bank and asked to be put through to "the person in charge" I'd expect to speak to a CS team leader at best, and expect to have to wait some time before getting a call-back or written response, rather than being able to speak immediately to anyone with any seniority. I think the issue here is with your expectations of how the council would handle your call.

Anyway, as has been pointed out several times now - the tree is not the problem here.  It is only in the way if you are driving over the verge.  If you had got through to "the person in charge" and they'd sent someone out to investigate, the response you'd now have would be a reminder not to drive over the verge (at best) or posts/bollards to stop you doing so.  The council are very unlikely to remove the tree to facilitate unlawful driving on the verge.... so you'd be much better off asking them to consider a wider crossover.

Section62

lookstraightahead said:

Section62 said:

lookstraightahead said:

Why are trees being planted so close to the foundations of houses / driveways of properties? Do they have targets / boxes to tick? The roots will be pushing up the pavement in a few years.

For street trees councils generally now only plant species which have a low water demand (giving some thought to climate change), and a deeper root system.  So problems with damage to foundations and footways/road surfaces should be minimal.

Although there are targets and boxes to tick, contrary to popular belief not all people working for councils are stupid.

Who said they were all stupid.
 

"popular belief"

emma_here

74jax said:

emma_here said:

74jax said:

daveyjp said:

The problem is people parking opposite driveways (which is selfish), not the tree.

We have a driveway and the people opposite park on the road as they don't have a drive (1 does, the other doesn't). It's not really selfish, they are parking outside their house, just happens to be across from our drive 🙄. 
Or road is narrow, so if we didn't have a drive we couldn't park outside our house, if they were already there. 
My husband drives on forward with the T6 so he can swing out easily, is that an option OP?

Backing out my van with the cars streetlight and tree is something i never tried as reversing is much harder with the visability. I could try it i guess but i need the back doors at the house to load up really and i already hit the house once reversing hahaha 

Ah OK, reversing in would be much harder for us with the cars opposite (and others cars on the drive), but much easier for us to reverse out due to how our steering works.

When you used to drive in /out, did you drive over where the tree is? Or is the tree now blocking your view? Could you drive in /out from the other way (sorry as a T6 driver/parker also in a residential area, trying to think of suggestions) 

Thanks Jax, i will have a look and see what i can do! Think i will leave it there and close the chat. 

canaldumidi

emma_here said:

74jax said:

emma_here said:

74jax said:

daveyjp said:

The problem is people parking opposite driveways (which is selfish), not the tree.

We have a driveway and the people opposite park on the road as they don't have a drive (1 does, the other doesn't). It's not really selfish, they are parking outside their house, just happens to be across from our drive 🙄. 
Or road is narrow, so if we didn't have a drive we couldn't park outside our house, if they were already there. 
My husband drives on forward with the T6 so he can swing out easily, is that an option OP?

Backing out my van with the cars streetlight and tree is something i never tried as reversing is much harder with the visability. I could try it i guess but i need the back doors at the house to load up really and i already hit the house once reversing hahaha 

Ah OK, reversing in would be much harder for us with the cars opposite (and others cars on the drive), but much easier for us to reverse out due to how our steering works.

When you used to drive in /out, did you drive over where the tree is? Or is the tree now blocking your view? Could you drive in /out from the other way (sorry as a T6 driver/parker also in a residential area, trying to think of suggestions) 

Think i will leave it there and close the chat. 

I suspect you'll have difficulty with that too. Once folks get started discussing councils.......