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Council verses angry home owner

Jacqueline29Jacqueline29 Posts: 393
in Problem solving
A company that is working with our local council, are coming around and clearing the pavements of dust, rubbish and leaves. Yesterday they were doing along our side of the road, we have a small low wall outside our property. I grow aubretia, dianthus, snap dragons to name but a few in the wall. Now the aubretia was hanging over the wall (as it does). We get a lot of people walking by admiring it. The company have come along with a sharp cutter and chopped my aubretia away from the wall, leaving marks in the wall. They then had the audacity to sweep it up and just leave it up against my wall. They also cut some other plants of mine from the wall as well. I am absolutely angry, frustrated, annoyed, flabbergasted I could go on...………….. I have put in a complaint, not expecting to hear anything back mind you. 

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  • Lizzie27Lizzie27 Posts: 12,494
    You might have to jump up and down and scream loudly at the Council and demand compensation for ruined plants, but...…. I think I'm right in saying that strictly speaking they could be classed as overhanging vegetation so the Council has the right to cut them back.  It will be interesting to see what response you get.  I expect it was just some poor person following orders to tidy it all up and took it literally.
    North East Somerset - Clay soil over limestone
  • Jacqueline29Jacqueline29 Posts: 393
    Thank you Lizzie27 for your comment. This is the first time they have been seen sweeping along the roads. To be honest I have always had this like this for years, it is not on the pavement, and I would not let it get like that. It is my property, and I would not dream of doing that to even my neighbor, without speaking to them first. The world has gone completely mad with everything, I am sorry to say. I am not asking for compensation, it is just the actual way they did it, and damaged our wall!! 
  • herbaceousherbaceous Posts: 2,318
    There's overhanging and there's OVERHANGING...........  I can't believe a bit of aubretia would make much difference to the passage of people.

    The bus stop just down the road was practically obliterated by poorly maintained leylandii and we all had to shuffle round if anyone with a buggy or shopping bag came by as the pavement width was halved. Miraculously in April 2011 it was cut back by the Council. They returned same time last year and trimmed a bit more back. It is now brilliant for bus passengers and public alike.

    The cynic in me can't help wondering about the dates and proximity of those royal weddings as we are on the car route from London to Windsor!
    "The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it."  Sir Terry Pratchett
  • Busy-LizzieBusy-Lizzie Posts: 24,043
    I would be furious too. I hope someone takes note.
    Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
  • Lizzie27Lizzie27 Posts: 12,494
    I know what you man @Jacqueline29, I was hopping mad like you last week when the verge outside our property was strimmed, including all the wild primroses on it!
    North East Somerset - Clay soil over limestone
  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    They might be able to claim that they can cut back plants hanging over the pavement, but damaging your wall is another matter.  Hopefully this overzealous "tidying" was a one-off and the poor plants will get a chance to grow back. How do councils find the money for this kind of thing and at the same time claim they have to reduce  services like social care?
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • AnniDAnniD Posts: 12,585
    Have you contacted the contractor as well as the council Jacqueline?  I suspect Lizzie is right and they've just told their employees to tidy up, cut it back, and that's it. I doubt very much that, generally  speaking, they know a delphinium from a dandelion and just do what they are told. The damage to the wall is a different matter however.
  • Lizzie27Lizzie27 Posts: 12,494
    Well, I'm not voting this year. 
    North East Somerset - Clay soil over limestone
  • KT53KT53 Posts: 9,016
    I suspect the workmen were told to remove any growth overhanging the pavement and that is what they have done.  It's really not their responsibility to evaluate the effect of any overhang.  There was a report in our local rag recently about residents kicking off when a hedge, which was half the width of the pavement was cut back to the property boundary line. 

  • young codgeryoung codger Posts: 543
    In the bottom photo, it looks like they have attacked your plants with a spade to cause that damage-numpties!

    @Jenny J
    They waste our hard earned council tax on things like this because it comes easy to them. Makes me wonder just how much of our money is spent on unnecessary things. :/
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