| Proposal | Holm Oak is located in the back garden and is very close to the rear of the house. The crown is almost touching the windows on the first floor and the guttering and soffits above. We are unable to open the windows of the bedroom closet to the tree due to its proximity and the risk of squirrels and birds entering. The tree's roots are causing considerable damage to the fencing and pavement and the majority of the tree crown overhangs beyond the boundary onto the public footpath and Herbert Road. I am concerned that high sided vehicles will be damaged by the tree. As it is an evergreen tree we do not get the usual autumn leaf fall, instead the leaf fall begins from late May through until mid August carpeting the grass making half of our garden inaccessible for use by our children unless clearing the leaves first. The tree is heavily infested with leaf minor that the tree officer noted at his last visit some years ago and resulting leaf drop has only worsened as the infestation worsens. We can fill an entire green wheelie bin on a weekly basis with tiny leaves just from this tree which makes the garden practically unusable at the very time the garden should be utilised the most. The fallen leaves on the roadside litter the road for quite some distance and aren't collected by the council sweeping machines as per the usual autumn process and so can sit in the gutters for prolonged periods of time. Given the extreme dry weather of recent years this is not ideal and is a potential fire hazard. I am finding it increasing difficult to keep up with the maintenance of the tree.The incredibly thick canopy prevents light from penetrating causing excessive shading and preventing rainfall from reaching any plants or grass beneath it.
During high winds the proximity of the tree to the house leaves us particularly vulnerable and we often have branches fall . That situation isn't set to improve as climate change accelerates. As it is an evergreen tree the canopy is permanently full we were very concerned the tree might fall either onto our home or onto the road during high winds or storms. Both outcomes would be horrendous. The risk is greater in the winter with the ground wet and the full canopy acting like a sail.
I would like to have the tree cut back, crown reduced by 5m and lifted by 3m and thinned removing all dead wood in the process, as previously granted on two occasions. The lower section of the roadside canopy was cut back last year by a council workforce but this has left the crown unbalanced and unattractive and a council officer visited a few months ago to inform us we had to cut the tree back as it was causing an obstruction. I could only trim back a small section or branched overhanging the pavement which will inevitably grow back again over the summer |
