Overhanging Branches from 2 Large Trees Outside no17

Updates

• 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. 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.

  Posted by Buckinghamshire Council at 10:46, Friday 8 May 2026

• 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 10:06, Saturday 9 May 2026

• State changed to: Open

  Updated by Buckinghamshire Council at 12:42, Friday 22 May 2026