To sweep leaves into the road

[thinkfast]

There is a huge tree on the pavement outside our house. It's the only one of its kind on our long road. It blocks out all the light to the front of our house, drips sticky sap and leaves. The rest of the road has much smaller mostly cherry trees around 10ft or so. We have repeatedly asked the council to replace it with a smaller tree, similar to the rest of the road, but they refuse.

Our front garden is currently full of its leaves. Would I be unreasonable to sweep them onto the pavement, as they aren't our leaves, they come from the council's tree. The alternative is that I have to book and pay for a garden waste collection.

No, you can’t have council delinquents invading your front garden.,

Have it cut, burn and the salt the ground,

Or alternatively, just put up with it for a few weeks. Big trees are invaluable for human survival as species. A few puddly cherry trees won’t do it, and also they drop fruit and are not as tidy as your think they are.,

Technically I think it is fly tipping - we've had warning letters off the council about it (heavily tree lined area, all houses got the letter, not just us). It's annoying because until very recently we also had to pay extra in council tax if we wanted garden waste bin removing weekly, so not only do we have to deal with the leaves, we also have to pay extra to have them removed. Personally the leaves don't bother us - I would much rather have trees and deal with leaves than have no trees, but I can see why it is an issue for others.

The house at the top of our cul de sac has done this and it’s lethally slippy in the wet. It looks a mess too

The difference with a small tree is that it wouldn't overhang our front garden so we wouldn't have to sweep its leaves.

The rest of the info was just for background. My question is simply aibu to sweep the leaves back onto the pavement? They aren't my leaves and I don't want to pay for a garden waste collection when it's not my waste.

Stick them in a black bin liner, let rot and you will have compost by next year. It’s what we do, but you will need a corner where you can store the bin liners.

I estimate we have about 5 bin bags worth. It's a really big tree. Our compost is already full

This is the sort of thing I would ask my parish council about. Tried them, to get a solution at ground level so to speak?

It also cleans the air all around you.
Burnt the fucker!
Collect the leaves or leave them to rot but don't block the drain. (It's you that'll have to report it)

Five bags worth of leaves? How big is your front garden?

Honestly m, they just look like a lot, but squish down nicely.

It can be a hassle, but surely the benefits of a tree outweigh the negative aspects.

We have exactly this scenario. 2 men came from our council and bagged the leaves up and took them away. We were going to do it ourselves but it saved us a job. I love the big old tree. He’s home to so many birds.

Don’t sweep them into the road, it’ll clog up the drains!

Can't you take it to the rubbish dump

Sweep up the leaves, they will rot down either in a bag in your bin, or corner of your garden.

Please don't sweep in to the road

If you sweep them into the road won't they just blow back into your garden?

It'll clog up the drains, then you'll moan when it rains and the road floods.

Is this your first year at this house?

I fill about 10 garden waste wheelie bins every few weeks, damn oak trees!

As annoying as it is, id only sweep in the road if the road sweeper was coming, just easier to pick them up.

Do you have a garden waste collection? I know it's a hassle to keep the leaves because we have them too (from our own tree) and the garden waste is only collected once a fortnight.

The council do ok actually - they charge us to take away the garden waste, and then they charge people for the compost it makes!

If you sweep the leaves into the street they will block the drains and cause floods next time it rains hard.

Fair enough to cut down trees if you don't mind doing without oxygen.

Has it grown to this enormous size since you moved in?

What would you normally do with grass clippings etc?

Just bag them up and take to the tip. It's free.

YABU.

Don’t you have a regular garden waste collection without having to book one? Leaves can be a slip hazard so please don’t sweep onto the pavement.

I know you say your own compost is full, but could there be anyone nearby who would want them for their garden? Is there a FB group or similar where you could offer them up? Maybe not, but it might be worth a try. Leaves are wonderful for keeping weeds down and enriching the soil, and most of them really do compost down very quickly, if given a chance.

Sweep up the leaves put into black bags and put in general waste

If you hate big trees so much why buy a house with one right in front of it. Aside from that you would be very unreasonable to sweep the leaves into the street.

That seems fair enough to me, you definitely shouldn’t have to pay extra to get rid of them if them not being there matters to you.

Sweeping then anywhere will just make pavements and roads slippery, for walkers, cyclists and motor cyclists. I hope your home insurance is up to date.