What are these trees please?

theoretica

Or is your concern that if the roots come your direction you will not be permitted to carry out your plans as it would disturb the trees?

Belenus

NatNat77 said:

I'm hoping someone can identify these trees please! I'm not sure if I have any photos of them with leaves 🙈 it's the two at the front of the photo and we're hoping to establish whether their roots are likely to impact on the footings for our planned building works.
Thanks in advance 😊

My guess is Lime on the left and Sycamore on the right.

They look to be in a public area. How close to your property boundary are they and how close to your planned building are they?

The left one appears to have been pollarded some years ago which suggests that a Local Authority or some other body looked after them.

NatNat77

stuart45 said:

How far are they from the foundation?
Do you know your subsoil type?

I'd guesstimate approx 10m, and the subsoil is mostly clay I believe (SE London) 

NatNat77

Thanks everyone for the comments. I'll do some googling on the trees mentioned to try and understand their roots. The trees are in the grounds of an old listed building which may have historically been owned by the council, but isn't now. They'll have been there a very long time anyways. As far as I can see none of them have a TPO on them.

I'm not too concerned that we won't be able to build at all, but we may need deeper footings or whatever is needed to protect the tree. I have a structural engineer lined up so will definitely be asking him.
Thanks again all xx

Section62

NatNat77 said:

The trees are in the grounds of an old listed building...

You also need to check the situation with planning - don't assume you're OK building as permittted development.

NatNat77

Section62 said:

NatNat77 said:

The trees are in the grounds of an old listed building...

You also need to check the situation with planning - don't assume you're OK building as permittted development.

We have planning permission already 

Section62

NatNat77 said:

Section62 said:

NatNat77 said:

The trees are in the grounds of an old listed building...

You also need to check the situation with planning - don't assume you're OK building as permittted development.

We have planning permission already 

Did the council's trees officer comment on the planning application?

If so, try contacting them and asking their advice regarding species - there's a good chance if the property was formerly owned by the council they will still have information about the trees on their database.

NatNat77

Section62 said

Section62 said:

Did the council's trees officer comment on the planning application?

If so, try contacting them and asking their advice regarding species - there's a good chance if the property was formerly owned by the council they will still have information about the trees on their database.

No they didn't as far as I recall, I'll double check though. And check the history of the property to see if the council ever owned it. The planning officer didn't even visit due to COVID, despite me telling him he could if he wanted, as we have side access to the garden so he wouldn't have needed to enter the house. We have quite strict rules where we are as well, but he asked for extra photos and presumably used street view etc instead. We started the application in August and PP received on Christmas Eve 

stuart45

The foundation depth in high shrinkable clay with a sycamore 10M away is 1.55M.

NatNat77

stuart45 said:

The foundation depth in high shrinkable clay with a sycamore 10M away is 1.55M.

Oh that's amazing, thanks so much!