Hedges v pavements

Agree watermeadow and in the winter I love seeing where the nests have been once the leaves have fallen from the trees. POGS just looked that up, a very sad state of affairs.

When you find a lampost completely swallowed up by someones hedge or someone puts a mirror up so they can see traffic coming along a perfectly straight road rather than realise that their hedge is too far out it's amusing but less sonwhen you have to walk in the road.

POGS, don't know the case of Sheffield council, but they usually cut trees down because their afraid of being sued, don't they? Or is that just an urban myth?

Typical though, leave hedges and chop trees.

Actually overgrowing hedges and tree branches are a bit of a chance for me to have a good old chunter.

I use a mobility scooter and they are a problem alongside cars parked on pavements. Also we have a very long footpath joining our village to the outskirts of town and it is now so overgrown the school children, albeit of a secondary school age, have to inevitably walk in the road in some sections , very dangerous.

Expanding the point a tad , I do think the Sheffield Council (possibly others) however has behaved very badly over the widespread felling of the their trees. What has possessed that council?

I remember just a few years ago, an article on the local news whereby people complained of an overhanging hedge, and the council cut it back so hard it eventually died! I think they were compensated.

Leylandii, Laylandii, Leylandii wherefore art thou? Causing someone grief somewhere.

Do councils still get involved in arbitration between neighbours if someone doesn't keep their hedges cut?
It seems odd to me in todays world where the council is cutting back on lots of services that they are still involved in providing this. I know it's not free, but seems a poor use of resources when small claims courts could deal with this problem

Hedges grow explosively in early summer but mustn’t be cut before August because of nesting birds.
My big old hedge only gets cut once yearly because it costs over £200. It is full of wildlife and will not be touched until August.

Agree nonnaW I find the same obstruction in supermarket car parks. Unless you drive a van or one of those land rover type vehicles you can't see if anything is coming unless you edge out til you are almost all of the way out!

It’s not just hedges overhanging the footpaths, there is a mini roundabout near us which is getting more and more dangerous as there is a large hedge which obstructs the view of vehicles approaching the roundabout.

Our road is very narrow with pavement only on one side - however a couple of neighbours have allowed conifers which grow right on the edge to get wider and wider and in fact, we have had delivery lorries refuse to come up in case they rip the canvas sides on the trimmed but wide hedges.

I wish that people who build estates and landscape them would think a bit more about what they plant. We moved here to get away from (amongst other things) hedge cutting and were told by the estate agent that the shrubs at the back of our garden wall were the responsibility of ‘a contractor’ to cut - so we didn’t bother as the plans we had stated that the garden wall was our boundary. Then a man from the environment agency knocked on the door and told us we had to cut them away from the pavement. We remonstrated with him, showed him our plans and he said he would go away and talk to the council and get back to us. He never did, but neither did the council cut them, so in the end, DH felt obliged to do it and most of it being pyracantha, it is a horrible job (most the people who live here have the same grumble), but part of the landscaping was a huge area of laurel that topped our wall by around ten feet and to a depth of around five feet, and blocked a lot of light from my flower beds. It became impossible for us to cut, so at considerable expense, we had it taken out. The only saving grace is that the shrubs that are there don’t grow as fast as the privet we had in the last house!!

The owners of those hedges must get into the car at the gate and never walk along a pavement, and never try to walk past bulging spiky bushes while pushing a wheelchair or a buggy with one hand and holding a child in the other.

Here it is cars parked across half a narrow pavement that cause the worst hazard. I have seen someone take a baby in a high pram and a walking toddler into a busy road to get round. I tackled the driver when he returned. His reply "I was only five fucking minutes!"

Exactly Elegran! I was thinking I can't be the only one on gransnet who has this problem surely someone will be sympathetic (I see some others also have this problem)

I have complained but no action. I witnessed one gentleman getting his head scratched badly by someone's holly bush which was hanging over the whole pavement.

We pay for our green waste to be collected by the council and some weeks have the next load ready to fill the bin as soon as it has been emptied. We are fortunate to have our own lovely hedges and trees and enjoy seeing the wildlife enjoying their existence too.

So mawbroom far from moaning about greenery I'm just moaning about the hedges which now take over all or more than half of the pavement forcing anyone walking onto the edge of the pavement or onto the road. As for anyone using anything with wheels, mobility scooters, wheelchair users, prams etc, tgey have no choice and I'm not exaggerating. I see the council being able to offer more people work and hedge owners being able to have someone sort out their hedge for a charge.

When you think about it, we pay for the upkeep of the pavements through the council rates so we should be able to walk along them.

I read Moo's post as suggesting that the council offer to cut private hedges as a "money making and job creating opportunity" not as a free service. Trimming them back on the pavement side would let people walk past or get their wheelchairs/prams/buggies past without stepping into the road but still leave the greenery to de-pollute the air.

Exactly, complain to your Council, Parish or otherwise.

Charges for green waste collection, was introduced to our area a few years ago. It is £60.00 per year, for a brown bin, collected fortnightly. Residents can also buy recyclable(sp) brown paper bags, £5.00 for 5. They are very sturdy, and hold a lot of garden waste. Re the subject of overgrown hedges, we used to have a beautiful pink mallow, abutting the pavement,that did grow huge. One year, we had a letter from the council saying that if we didn't cut it back, they would send someone to do it, and charge us ?.

We have too many overgrown hedges in our area and there isn't enough space for prams etc. to pass safely. I think it shows a real lack of consideration from the residents of these (very nice) properties.

They are also an issue next to busy roads. I don’t want to walk in the road and I’m sure wheelchairs buggys and children are safer on a pavement.

Overgrown hedges are an issue if you are in a wheelchair.

I don't think anyone wants to see any hedges grubbed out, just cut back from the pavement a bit so that pedestrians don't have to walk in the road.
We have a problem with overgrown hedges in our area. You have a choice of getting scratched to pieces or dicing with death on the roads!

Sorry - Ninathenana

My point exactly Ninatgenana (Tip runs)
Our green wheelie bins have just been emptied(7.30) and we still have a weekly collection, fingers crossed that continues!

Contact your Parish Council, they will speak to the homeowners on your behalf, most people will cut the hedges once they realise people are having a problem getting past.

Our local council no longer sub contract the verge cutting due to "lack of funs" it is now done by highways the consequence being the grass in some places is a foot or more high as they are cut far less often. I can't see them funding trimming privately owned hedges even if they are blocking pavements. I do think people should be find if their hedge is causing an obstruction though. But then that's more admin and more time and expense for the council to deal with, so that won't happen.
We have brown bins for garden waste which the council charge £40 annually to collect on a fortnightly basis. So no need for tip runs here Maw

I think our recycling scheme is brilliant we pay £42 a year I don’t have a car and the recycling unit is about 2/3 miles away Every fortnight I fill my green bin up to the top I couldn’t live without it and if it goes up in charge I ll still gladly pay

I really don’t follow your logic moocow
The importance of greenery - trees, bushes and hedges- in our streets is more vital than ever to help with air quality, exhaust fumes etc. Trees are the “lungs” of our planet, as I have often read.
Yes, hedges may overhang pavements but that has to be down to the house owner and while tree roots and indeed trees can make pavements narrower, imagine our towns and cities without greenery?
The cost of effective garden waste disposable is another issue altogether, but enterprising councils will be composting waste, using anaerobic digesters as ours does in a win- win situation.
You can’t expect those without transport to get it to the dump/recycling centre themselves so this has to be a better solution.