Action scheduled
The Ash tree is on the grass verge between houses in Carter Walk and Katherine Close.
Sent to Buckinghamshire Council less than a minute later. FixMyStreet ref: 6821470.
The large tree is starting to show the effects of ash dieback, it is situated on the grass verge between houses in Carter Walk and Katherine Close.
Residents have expressed safety concerns for some time as the ash tree with three trunks has one trunk leaning towards the road at about 30 degrees. It is not necessary to remove the tree just remove the weight from one side and prevent a collapse.
On school days parents park their cars beneath the tree twice a day to take and collect their children to and from the middle school, most parents to do not realise the possible danger, with this in mind limited action now may well prevent a major incident.
The adjacent brick wall has cracked behind the tree and this section of the wall could be considered ‘Live', it will bring the wall down as happened some ten years ago one Sunday morning to a lower section of the wall and without any warning.
Our local councillor for Tylers Green and Loudwater Katrina Wood has taken the issue up with Bucks County Council and was advised the tree was surveyed in April this year and Buck County Council considered no further action was required. I strongly recommend Bucks County Council reconsider the April 2024 decision and address the concerns of my adjacent neighbours.
Updates
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A Highway Officer will carry out an initial assessment of the tree, emergency issues 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 tree 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 tree safe. Not all Highway Officers are not qualified as tree experts and in some cases they may need to arrange for a tree surgeon to visit the site and carry out a survey on the tree which can take up to 12 weeks.
There may also be occasions when the issue reported will be 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, in these cases no action will be taken.
We do not prune or remove council owned trees to improve natural light for a private property (including obstruction of solar panels). If you wish to carry out any work on a tree, you must first check the tree is not protected before any work is started. How to find out if a tree has a Tree Preservation Order (TPO) in Buckinghamshire.
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Update
The Highways Officer has attended the site and completed an inspection based on your report.
As a result of this inspection, we plan to resolve the issue reported within 6-8 weeks.
Thank you for taking the time to let us know, your reports alongside our Highways Safety Inspections are crucial to ensuring our network is safe for all residents and visitors.
Regards
Buckinghamshire Highways
This report is now closed to updates from the public. You can make a new report in the same location.