A resident of Market Deeping recently got in touch with me about the tree in a neighbouring property. He told me it was very tall and was worried out the potential impact on his house if it continued growing or, perhaps worse still, if it fell down.

This post outlines what advice I offered and I share it in the hope that it might be useful to people with tree concerns either in Market and West Deeping or elsewhere.

I’ve started by looking for the tree on Google Maps to try to identify at which property it was located. By knowing the exact location of the tree I could try and work out who had responsibility for the tree.

The location also helped me to determine whether or not the tree was subject to TPO (Tree Preservation Order) and whether or not it was in a Conservation Area. All works to trees with TPOs and/or in Conservation Areas has to have prior consent from the planning authority (in our case, SKDC). If anyone decides to do works to a tree it is worth double-checking this information so that no-one ends up getting fined.

Having established the identity of the tree and the likely owner, and if you are worried that the tree might be a danger to your house there are various things you can do:

• Speak to the owner of the tree.

Pollarding a tree is one of those jobs that easily gets put off. He/she might be in just as much danger as you are and a friendly word of concern from you might be the prompt they need to take action. This doesn’t have to be a confrontation and obviously I have no idea what kind of relationship you have with this neighbour, if any.

Some of my own neighbours once spoke to me about a tree in my own garden. It kept growing without me noticing. The first time I cut it down to half its size and the second or third time I had it removed completely. It wasn’t a very precious tree and I valued the good will of my neighbours more than I valued the tree.

• Speak to an arboriculturalist

In the right conditions, trees can last for hundreds of years. Is there a particular reason why you think all or part of this tree is likely to be is in danger of falling or breaking?  A professional tree expert (arboriculturalist) will give you guidance on the health and condition of the tree and how likely it is to fall. I can put you in touch with an arboriculturalist who lives in my ward but there are two potential drawbacks to this approach: a) she might charge; and b) she might need access to the base of the tree.

Perhaps you might persuade your neighbour that the tree should be inspected.

• Speak to your insurance company.

If your neighbour isn’t convinced by a friendly chat they might be more persuaded by the idea that they could be responsible for the costs of damage to your property (and indeed their own). The likelihood of the tree falling down in a storm is only one aspect. There may be other reasons why your insurance is affected e.g. by root damage to foundations, drainage and water courses.

• Speak to the Council

I have put this option last because I think it is the least likely to have any effect. The Council’s tree consultant tends to spend his limited time protecting trees from damage and development. If there was reason to believe the tree was an immediate or imminent danger to life or property then the Council might intervene but I have only heard of this happening once and that was a rotten oak in a school field near Nottingham.

If there are branches of the tree that overhang your property I think you have some rights to trim them back as far as your own perimeter (assuming there is no issue with TPO or Conservation Area) but it is worth trying to speak to your neighbour about it first.

Finally, I would say that, generally speaking, everyone like trees. They don’t answer back nor set out to cause arguments. They provide shade and encourage wildlife etc. If it is the height of the tree which is a problem then it might be easier to persuade your neighbour to pollard the tree by a few metres than to have it cut down completely.

I hope this is useful. Please let me know if you have any other thoughts on trees, especially in the Deepings.

When Local Government was reformed in 1974, Grantham Town Council was abolished leaving only a committee of Charter Trustees. The power of the Trustees doesn’t extend far beyond electing a Mayor and paying for his/her petrol. This leaves a democratic deficit in Grantham because other towns and villages have a Town or Parish Council to make representations about planning applications etc while there is no equivalent voice for the people of Grantham.

At the May meeting of SKDC Full Council I proposed that there should be a Community Governance Review for Grantham to decide whether the Charter Trustees should be replaced by a proper Town Council. Here is the text of the speech I prepared and used in proposing the motion:

“Grantham needs a Town Council.

It is one of only a very few towns in Lincolnshire that does not have a Town or Parish Council. This leaves a democratic gap where there is no unique town body to formally speak for Grantham residents.

As Cllr Ray Wootten said back in 2017, “it is vital that a town Council for Grantham is created to ensure that local people have control over their own destiny.”

I first submitted a motion on this subject ahead of the November meeting. However, a similar motion was then submitted by another Member so I gave way at that time.

Unfortunately, on the day of the meeting, the motion was withdrawn. Six months later it hasn’t come back and this debate is long overdue.

The creation of a Grantham Town Council will provide an alternative and more appropriate forum for Grantham Councillors to consider Grantham events.

In the Deepings, we have Town and Parish Councils to speak with authority and with a coherent voice in response to the various initiatives proposed by the District and County Council officers in their far away offices.

When the Development Management Committee considers planning applications concerning the smaller towns and the villages, we usually hear thoughtful representations from town and parish councils. When considering planning applications for Grantham, we don’t get any such information.

For these reasons, and others, I think it is time to ask Grantham residents how they feel about the role of the Charter Trustees and whether or not they would like to see a more effective Council in their town.

I suspect some Councillors might tease me for proposing a Grantham Town Council when I don’t live in Grantham. – Some people will always find it easier to play the man rather than play the ball. – I say to those people, if you don’t like the idea of someone thirty miles away telling you what’s best for your community, then ‘Welcome to my world!’

Grantham, you have outsiders telling you what to do all the time. Only two of the SKDC Cabinet members live in Grantham.

In the Deepings we’ve had people from across Lincolnshire selling our youth centre, trying to pull the rug from under our library and last week organising a ‘community listening event’ in order to tell us why we should build houses on the popular Mill Field recreation area. But in the Deepings we’re organised.

Grantham, if you listen, you could learn a lot from the Deepings.

It’s time to express your independence. It’s time to Take Back Control!

Getting yourself a Town Council is the first step to freedom!”

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More details of the outcome of the debate are listed in an earlier blog post.