Neighbour wants tree cut down

[HimalyanSilverBirch]

Hello,

I'd appreciate some thoughts on a dispute with my neighbour.

I have a silver birch in my garden that is next to the boundary.

My neighbour wants us to cut this down because they don't like the mess caused by falling seeds/leaves and because of the risk the roots may cause their newly laid (and presumably very expensive) patio which is right next to the boundary.

For reference we are in a conservation area and the removal of the tree would require planning permission as the diameter is over 7.5cm at a height of 1.5m (though only just). The tree trunk is thus relatively slender and the height is roughly that of a two story house but the canopy is not large.

Unfortunately, the conversion got quite heated/ugly (and ended up with them throwing their sweepings over the fence).

I'll admit I don't want to lose the tree as it is really lovely, but having a look on google birches do have shallow roots that can cause problems to patios.

So where I am at is that I'm loathe to cut down the tree but equally I'm conscious about potential damage to the neighbours property that I might become liable for (the fact you have to sweep up leaves I don't believe to be relevant).

It's also probably worth mentioning that if the roots were a problem I'm unsure why this wasn't raised by the professionals who installed the patio.

As a final point they said they had to declare the tree on their house insurance so potentially the motivation here is the impact on the premium (the tree was in situ when they bought the property).

I don't want to fall out with neighbours (though that ship might have sailed) so what next?

I looked at the council website and they don't engage re: private tree disputes.

So I'm a bit unsure of what to do next and am I BU by not agreeing to cut down the tree.

Has anybody been in a similar situation?

Sadly I don't think placating is an option other than cutting down the tree.

This is interesting
We have a HUGE ash tree in our neighbours garden that keeps the sun from our garden it's so huge.
They refuse to remove it.
Should I put this request in writing?

Silver birches are such beautiful trees. It would be criminal to chop one down. How shallow must your neighbours be not to be able to see the beauty in a tree ffs?

I haven't seen the tree so I'm going to ask you a question.

You've said it's really small. This type of tree has shallow roots.

Can you move it?

Just a suggestion don't bite my head off!

I have two and I wish at least one was a cherry :-)

Word to the wise to anyone interested in trees don't ever get a monkey puzzle! The leaves are like knives and tree surgeons hate them 😂

So glad someone se has advised calling the tree people at the council. They are ime very helpful and knowledgeable. I would also forcthe sake of £100 or so get a tree surgeon to assess the trees health and potential for damage just for your own piece of mind. We need more trees, and a neighbours dislike of droppings is irrelevant.

I worked in property maintenance and the number of people who but houses in leafy tree full areas who then campaign to remove any trace of them is disgusting. I would be VERY firm in refusal and make it very clear the council have been consulted and will know exactly where to go should anything happen to the tree. Mention the I stallion of a ring doorbell to cover any poisonings.

You won't find a compromise with people like this, you gave to be firm and immovable that its tough tits and the tree is going nowhere.

Do you think copper nails work?

My neighbour would certainly appreciate your perspective.

The seeds are only shed for a few weeks a year though. It's not every day all year round and given the tree canopy is small it's far from a deluge. The amount they tipped over the fence from todays sweepings would fit inside a crisp packet.

I am conscious though of not wanting to BU hence posting here so I appreciate you giving your opinion.

I'm just not convinced seeds a few weeks a year justifies cutting down an established pretty tree.

No, check the council website and see if you are in a conservation area, if so, nothing you can do. If not, you can ask nicely but it's totally up to them unless it is dangerous, dead, or causing damage.

*haven't seen the tree so I'm going to ask you a question.

You've said it's really small. This type of tree has shallow roots.

Can you move it?

Just a suggestion don't bite my head off!*

Not planning on biting anyone!

I came here for advice/perspectives so happy to listen :-)

The tree is unlikely to survive being moved.

I'd consider this option if it were viable but apparently it's expensive to do and likely to fail.

Ooh that's easy to solve. Put in a conservation app and apply for removal. On the reasons state your neighbour hates trees and they want it removed as they don't like mess. The legal mechanism for a CA app means the app can only be approved, or denied AND the tree gets a Tree Preservation Order. Such a crap reason will piss off the Tree Officer, there's no way they'd give permission and boom there you go, TPO and tree saved. "Sorry neighbour old buddy- I tried my best...'

Silver Birch trees are the thing I'm most allergic too 🙄 was very glad to move away from the Woking area with its plentiful SB areas

This is the tree. Same species

https://www.trees-online.co.uk/Silver-Birch-Snow-Queen.html

As a side note... if you were building next to the tree you would have to abide by the guidance in BS5837 (trees in relation to construction). This gives guidance about how much ground you need to preserve around a tree to ensure it has enough of a root system for structural stability and nutrient uptake - this is based in the diameter of the stem. if the tree is just over 75mm - let's call it 80 to make the maths easy it would have a root protection area of 0.9m in all directions from the stem. If the tree is 3.0m from the boundary, trenching down and installing a root barrier on the boundary is unlikely to have any significant negative effect on the tree, and may alleviate your neighbours worries about root damage to the patio.

Bloody hell. So it’s going to grow to over 20 foot foot tall and 12 foot wide and it’s nine foot from his house.

honestly I hope he takes you to court. How utterly selfish of you.

@HimalyanSilverBirch I'm a planning officer. Generally to fell a conservation area tree it's needs to be one of the three D's dead dying or dangerous. The planting of a replacement tree of a similar species is usually required if the fallen tree is native.

Your council will sent out an arboriculturist to check the health of the tree as part of your application. Your will likely need a arboriculturist/tree surgeon) tree survey with your application for planning to even look at it (it's part of the application validation process).

ThIs is the size of our neighbour's tree.

Well I did asked for opinions so thanks for your candor I guess 😂.

For reference however, the tree is at least 15 years old and thus mature I believe (and won't grow much if any taller).

It's height is equivalent to a 2 story house.

However for reasons I don't claim to understand the canopy is tiny compared to that in the picture and only starts 3/4 of the way up the tree.

I posted a picture earlier as an example.

If the tree was the size of the picture below and likely to/be allowed to grow to that size I'd agree that the neighbour would have a fair point.

However, I'm very happy to keep up maintaining the tree and managing the size precisely because it's so close to the boundary (which I made clear).

As I stated earlier there really isn't anything to meaningfully prune.

Those pictures are not representative of the tree in this case.

Thanks very much for your advice.

The tree definitely isn't dead, dying or dangerous in my opinion.

You trees dimensions sound a bit odd. Is it healthy?

I really wouldn't want a silver birch growing so close to my house even a smaller variety. I love silver birches and I've got three massive ones at the ed of my garden. We've all got big gardens and I planted mine well away from the boundaries. I think the previous owner of your house was pretty shitty and stupid to plant it where they have. You neighbour seems a bit daft to approach you about this after building his patio but I can understand why they chose a patio as grass won't thrive so close to the tree.

Are you sure it's 75mm at 1.5 metres?

Is it possible to prune it, I know you can't at this time of year but it might help.

If I could I think I'd see if it was possible to cut it down. I know you didn't plant it but it's the wrong tree in the wrong place even if it's a slow growing variety.

I'm not a gardener so bear in mind that caveat but it looks perfectly healthy to me.

I appreciate the location of the tree isn't good, but we are where we are.

It would be so much easier if I could post a picture but I can't do that without including neighbours house and I think that's an invasion of their privacy and their house is distinctive if you know the village (in a good way, it's a pretty property). After all you only have my viewpoint here so I don't think it's fair to potentially identify them when they have no rebuttal.

I think the key is to speak to the council and take it from there.

They are independent and tree experts so I assume they will flag any issues with tree health and wider implications.

I don't really want to cut down the tree but I also don't want to be unreasonable and fundamentally if I'm advised that the tree is problematic by an independent party then I'll take on board their advice and act in line with that.

Sorry please see earlier post about 7.5cm at 1.5 metres.

That is not the size of the tree.

It's the dimension of the trunk at a height of 1.5m for you to need planning to fell a tree in a conservation area.

My tree's dimensions exceed this but not by much.

My tree's dimensions exceed this but not by much.

By which I mean trunk dimensions at 1.5m.

The height of the tree is as tall as a 2 story house but the canopy is circa 1.5m in circumference and starts 3/4 of the way up the tree.

@FlowersEverywherePlease was it there when you moved in?

Ash aren't that fast growing.

I'd love the issue of an actual tree

As it is, my idiot neighbours planted leylandii years back, too close to the border. As a result we couldn't fence to our property line.

Leylandii have almost no benefits to native wildlife.

Ash and silver birch do. We need to have more trees, not fewer. We live in the most nature deprived country in Europe.

Do your neighbours have plastic grass too OP?!!