Top of Clearbrook Close, overlooking Hammersley Lane

Updates

• This has been passed to our maintenance team who will carry out an assessment of the tree and provide an update within 28 days.

  Posted by Buckinghamshire Council at 10:43, Wednesday 21 June 2023

• Update

  Thank you for your recent communication with regard to trees at the above location. Unfortunately we do not prune or fell a council owned tree to improve natural light in a property or garden.

  Customer Advice:

  There is no such thing as a right to light concerning trees. The only right to light may be earned under the Prescriptions Act 1832, by which a person must have enjoyed light to a window in the dwelling for 20 years before the obstruction appeared. Redress must then have been sought in court within 12 months of the light being blocked or the right will be forfeited. If successful then an easement may be granted (that is, the granting of a right over a piece of land as a legal privilege) allowing the free, unimpeded, access to light. The Prescriptions Act 1832, only normally applies to buildings and or structures that are built which block light directly.

  If you wish to exercise your Common Law right to remove (abate) the nuisance associated with encroaching trees the property owner has the right to control overhanging branches by means of cutting them back to the property boundary.

  State changed to: Closed

  Posted by Buckinghamshire Council at 13:54, Wednesday 21 June 2023

• Customer wanted to clarify that the issue with the trees was not the absence of natural light but rather that the trees, given the current level of growth, are obscuring the nearest street light, leaving the area in near total darkness after nightfall. The second issue was that the tree growth is encouraging rodent intrusion into the adjacent properties, which is a environmental health issue.

  State changed to: Open

  Posted anonymously at 12:22, Tuesday 4 July 2023