Neighbour hacking off boughs - conservation area

[JennyForeigner]

Hi all, grateful for your expertise.

We live in a listed house in a conservation area with a beautiful garden and mature trees. We are good tree owners, having them annually checked and trimmed, and have removed unsuitable overgrown Leylandii with roots too close to houses.

We have had new neighbours for a couple of years. We have worked hard to get on well with them but they have upset people by replacing the grass verge at the front of their house with plastic mat without permission, lots of cars and basically being a bit tasteless in a community people move to for its greeness and wildlife. They have massively extended at the back without keeping within the permissions granted. The male half of the couple told me he plans to pave and AstroTurf their garden, and that he dislikes our (rather beautiful) garden because of the 'messy' plants. We have 8 foot fences.

About six months ago he asked if they could take down the overhanging boughs from a line of lovely trees including silver birch on our side of the boundary. He considers these 'untidy.'

I said that we understood it was his right to ask and that if he wanted to work with our tree surgeon would not object. Under a bit of pressure from him I agreed that if he had a preferred tree surgeon we would meet them and provided we were satisfied, allow them to work in our garden. I felt uncomfortable about this afterwards as I felt what he really wanted was to get some dodgy mate around.

Today I saw him up a ladder, sawing through one of the larger boughs from our silver birch. He had given no thought at all to how to do this properly, or minimising damage to the tree. We have been in all day and he didn't attempt to speak to us.

My husband now feels I was unreasonable for asking him why he didn't knock on our door and ask before getting his saw out. He stopped, but was not nice about it and I am now really quite unhappy. I don't believe for a minute that he would have stopped if I hadn't caught him, while we have three very young children and the trees are in a built up bed by the fence where there is a substantial level change. There is a risk that the trees will become unbalanced and unsafe, as well as looking awful.

I am frankly furious, especially as we have been so thoughtful and accommodating.

AIBU to tell him he can do one if he ever so much as mentions working on our land again?

And am I right to think he should have had permission before the work took place as we are in a conservation area? I am not sure about this, but would love it if I could tell him no on this basis. We have always had permission before getting our tree surgeon in, but as we have been taking leylandii out, I'm not sure if this is what the permission is for.

Would really appreciate any guidance people can give. AIBU?

That sounds really odd. I'm no expert but I would do two things:

1. Get in touch with your local councillor and ask them to clarify why this is the case. Do this asap.

1. When the planning is submitted, perhaps add a comment rather than objection requesting the planning officers and decision makers ensure they are aware of the situation regarding the listed status and protected views. They will then disregard if that is correct, but it won't get lost in a bundle of objections.

You can still separately object to the glass window and materials used.

So he wouldn't have been given permission to design his extension the way he has built it, but any retrospective application would be treated as just for a new glass wall in any other building. Which means he will probably get it. Not necessarily. It is a valid ground for objection that it causes lack of amenity through overlooking. I think they’re not so fussed about overlooking a garden, but can you see the window from inside any of your rooms? (Implying he’d be able to see in)

OP do you have a fence and and a silver birch providing some screening from the glass window in the extension ? Would a higher fence help ?

Yes - he can see into our kitchen from an area they have made into a big open plan diner.

I can't justify posting a picture of his house, but have sketched it. Key to this is that the boundary is very close - we have perhaps four feet from our back door to the fence and they have built to about two feet away from it.

Historically on that wall they had a small obscured glass window for a downstairs bathroom approx 24 inches. The plans showed the same obscured window retained but moved closer to his extension doors. We recognised that we couldn't object to something there previously, but assumed they basically saw it as a light well. They also have four veluxes in the room and two sets of big double doors on the extension end.

Instead they have left the window where it is - presumably intending to replace with clear glass as they have built a kitchen around it, and built the glass panel, so that the extension is close to being 60-65% glass on two sides, one of which is angled to look through our back door and kitchen window.

Through the course of this thread I realised this is one of the reasons we are feeling overwhelmed and exposed. Two key traffic areas of both homes now look into each other. We feel on show all of the time, especially as he has a habit of 'popping around' or over the garden fence to subject us to endless emotional blackmail about how important it is we are 'good' neighbours to him.

There is a fence, but because of the built up ground under the houses, it is significantly lower on our raised patio and by their house.

No, sadly. The trees are 30-40 feet away. They aren't particularly near the houses, which are are also on built up ground and patio.

We built a house with a large window in the side elevation (it was on the stairs) and had to put obscure glass in it. Interestingly it didn't directly overlook any of the neighbours windows....

and yes, we had full planning permission!

Thank you, this is good advice. Unfortunately the council told me today that the fantastic conservation and planning officers we have previously worked with are no longer on the team. They have been replaced with one part time enforcement and conservation role!

It sounds like they are completely overwhelmed, so our cllr feels like a good option.

I think you need a screen to block their window plus this - see picture.

It shouldn't affect any planning for your listed building as it's a film you can just peel off.

The proportions of that last sketch are rubbish by the way! Their house is much bigger and the extension more dominant than I have drawn. I've just been out and probably 20 ft have been added beyond the facing corner of our house.

Window film might be an option to consider. Right now I am closing all of the curtains and have put up a door curtain too.

Blimey, that’s just plain nasty! I think you could do with spending a bit of time hugging your trees and thinking about your behaviour!😂

I wouldn’t say that about the OP, but she’s a bit 🫤

I don’t understand why the OP’s being given such a hard time? It’s a thread about trees and conservation planning but seems she’s being given a character assassination, I don’t get it, why?

It's weird. Some PPs were out for a scrap and didn't care what about, I think.

¯\(ツ)/¯

I've called out some particularly nasty threads recently. And I don't believe in name-changing.

The pp felt that we should not consider enforcement action as we cannot prove that our neighbour understands the planning rules and regulations he is breaking.
OP if by PP you mean me ,please stop now .I have never expressed anything like that
Is it this post that you are referring to ?
Maybe he didn't ,@JennyForeigner .You weren't sure yourself about the position regarding trees in a conservation area .It's one of the reasons you posted .He asked you if he could take down the overhanging boughs and you discussed who would do it .
It's not surprising that he also lacked the knowledge ,

Actually it was in response to the post where you instructed me to 'reflect' as there are always two sides and you personally felt it was likely that our neighbour had followed the guidance, although you conceded we couldn't absolutely prove that. You thought I should 'be kind' like my husband, although my house is being encroached on and devalued.

I am glad to hear that I misread this as discouragement of holding him to account. Thank you for clarifying.

You seem like you really have an axe to grind on a random point. The OP is just trying to figure out what to do about a tricky neighbour and tree situation, it doesn’t seem like a contentious post at all? Trying to understand where you’re coming from 🤷‍♀️

I really don't have any axe's to grind Wilbur.

Soontobe60 posted expressing the view that the OP had been harsh in a response to me .The OP replied explaining the reason for her response .Her"reason"involved a complete misrepresentation of my posts .

I didn't bring this issue up ,the OP did .I will continue to post to counter incorrect representations ,I'll even quote what I said . If you think me defending myself is axe grinding ,so be it .
If you feel it's derailing the thread and dislike that I suggest you direct your comments to the OP and ask her not to rehash old posts and ,more importantly ,accurately reflect there content .

Actually we're both wrong, it was in response to a later comment when you said again that you thought it very possible that our neighbour wasn't aware of conservation area rules, having already said that you thought it probable that he had followed planning permissions.

It read to me - and still reads - as a series of posts in which you separated and worried away at a series of linked rules breaches, so that each could be separately questions and our response dismissed.

I am sorry if this was not your intention, but as previously, I don't think it helpful to re-engage.

I've been trying to walk a line between maintaining a thread as the OP that will hopefully stay up and be of use to people with similar issues in future as well as being very valuable to us, and letting the conversation be derailed.

Can we now look forward and stick to the technical planning and conservation advice? I think people would appreciate it.

I think you’re right OP. Best to ignore the derail! Best of luck with the situation, hope you get a happy outcome with the least stress possible.

Yet again OP I have never said that I thought it probable that your neighbour had followed planning permissions.!
I said
Personally I wouldn't be surprised if your neighbour hasn't followed all the regulations both with regard to trees and some aspects of his extension
I've explained this before ,even apologising for my use of double negatives .
Please stop misrepresenting me and then I won't need to post to put the record straight .
Which I'm sure will be a relief all round .

It read to me - and still reads - as a series of posts in which you separated and worried away at a series of linked rules breaches, so that each could be separately questions and our response dismissed.

What on earth are you talking about OP ? A series of linked rule breaches ? I've said that I think there are 2 sides to everything ,and I've said that it was possible your neighbour was genuine when he said he didn't know about regulations applying to your trees .
This is boring for everyone but I'm not going to ignore these accusations which you never substantiate.
You say my posts read and still read to you -so clearly they are fresh in your mind and it will be easy for you to provide examples of my posts where I have "separated and worried away at a series of linked rules breaches, so that each could be separately questions and our response dismissed."

Ignore ignore ignore.

I read this as being in support of the OP.

That amberedover would be surprised if they had followed the rules.