School at the back of my house

[bloomingbtambles]

Our end terrace house backs on to a school, there is a narrow alleyway at the back to give access to the other gardens and a 6 foot wire fence between the alley way and the school.

There is a line of trees in the school grounds which have got bigger & bigger so it goes in a cycle we and other neighbours complain to the school, eventually they get cut back and then it starts again. For another few years.

So over the summer we have been emailing, all the lower level brambles and sampling's have grown up & over the summer there was a solid wall of shrubbery about a metre from my fence, with the trees above them

The school have come back saying no money in the budget etc etc so today I'm working from home & realise they have workmen at the back who have cut pathways through the undergrowth and are replacing the fence. So I'm straight out there (in my slippers ) asking if they will cut more down!

They refused - 'in this day and age the school needs privacy, the school don't like us to be able to see the children! '

So I quickly email the school and say look the workmen are there, the fence is down please let them cut down some more undergrowth! It was passed to the headmaster apparently but it's too fucking late now the fence is back up the fucking undergrowth is still higher than 6ft in places!

Where would you go with this? Is there anywhere I can complain too?

@pickingdaisies

Hedges should be no higher than 2 metres.

Wrong.

High Hedges legislation relates to evergreens. Not native deciduous trees. And certainly not rough undergrowth.

OP planning will not have anything to do with this.

I can see what you mean in your last picture. They overhang quite significantly into the gardens blocking sky. If school aren't budging then I'd try and come together with your neighbours and get a tree surgeon out the cut back everything that overhangs into your garden.

It's just annoying when people can't be bothered to read the thread or at least my comments!

Thanks Pepper for taking the time to look at the photos! Mine aren't quite as bad as that because I regularly cut back all I can reach but I can't reach 30 metres!

The lower level stuff is definitely better then it was - but surely people can understand my frustration - the guys with the right tools were stood right there! They could have done it! They just wouldn't

Presumably they'd been paid)hired to do a specific job though. Doing more than contracted to would have cost more money.

If you want to tell work men what to do you need to book and pay for them. It sounds like you would be completely within your rights to do that. Sorry if that’s not the answer you were after.

Sorry if already said - who owns the little alley way - could you ask them to get the bushes / trees cut down or even if just provide access to you and neighbours to do it @bloomingbtambles I have a HA little walk way behind my tiny garden and spoke to the person who is in charge of the HA housing - he got them cut back - grown more now but will ask again. I am not sure this is the schools's problem ( realistically ) I would ask whoever owns the alleyway & then cut back to boundary This may not sort out the light problem but you can get cut back to the boundary of school and leave the alleyway free - that would surely help ?

Maybe the school have been notified that a paedophile is being housed on your row so they have a real reason to block as much sight into the playground?