Closed
Pavement obstructed by vegetation contrary to 1980s Highway Act
Sent to Buckinghamshire Council less than a minute later. FixMyStreet ref: 5875747.
Please get the the owner or occupier of the property to carry out their legal responsibility (Highway Act 1980 s154) to ensure that the ‘public highway’ adjacent to the property is not obstructed by vegetation from their property. This means that there must be a minimum headroom of 2.3m (7ft 6 inches), and all the vegetation should be cut back vertically at the boundary. This is a Health & Safety issue. The local authority has a statutory duty to enforce it.
Updates
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The report has been passed to the Highway Officer, who will carry out an inspection of the issue within 10 working days, emergency defects will be corrected or made safe at the time of the inspection, if reasonably practicable to do so. In this context, making safe may constitute displaying warning notices, coning‐off or fencing‐off to protect the public from the defect or other suitable action. If the inspection team cannot make safe the defect at the time of inspection, then they will instigate the relevant emergency call procedures to ensure appropriate resources are mobilised to make the defect safe.
There may also be occasions when the issue reported will not be repaired as it has been classified as a minor defect and does not pose any risk to either the safety or the integrity of the highway, these are called minimum recording levels as specified in our Highways Safety Inspection Policy.
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Update
We have investigated the issue reported and found that it is on private land, we cannot use public money to resolve issues on private land, we can only use the power we do have under Section 154 (1) of the Highways Act 1980, to advise the owner/occupier of adjoining land they are required to carry out work on their land so as to remove the cause or likelihood of danger, obstruction or interference to the users of the Highway (footpath).
In most cases the work is carried out very quickly by the owner/occupier, but in some instances this can be a lengthier process but be assured we will follow due process to ensure the work is carried out.
This report is now closed to updates from the public. You can make a new report in the same location.