Overgrown hedges in Forebridge

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ben0239

Well-Known Forumite
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Hi,
I am hoping one of you very intelligent forumites could help me resolve an argument that I am currently having with the Borough Council.

The issue first arose when all of the residents in my street were sent a fairly snotty letter from the B C informing us that if we didnt maintain the hedges in our rear entry to our properties he would insist that the Bin lorries no longer used the entry when collecting our bins meaning that we would have to take our bins to the end of the entry.
I live near to the end of the road so i do this anyway so this is not a problem for me, however it will be a problem for some of the more elderly neighbours. However this is not my actual gripe. My argument with the council is the fact that these hedges are not within the entry but behind the entry.
The entry is enclosed by our rear boundary fences and a metal fence on the oposite side of the entry, behind this metal fence is where the hedges are located on a small narrow strip of land approximately a metre wide that covers the full length of the entry. Behind this strip of land is the rear boundary fence for the new houses built on the crossings (the former GEC site).

At first the BC insisted that these hedges were on our land - which I have now proved otherwise through sending them a number of pictures and insisting that he actually made a site visit rather than writing letters to the residents. However he now informs me that he has wrote to the house builder of the crossings, Persimmon homes who have assured him that the land does not belong to them. Which frankly I do not believe. I cant imagine for one second a house builder buying a piece of land but then not purchasing the bit of land directly on the boundary.
Anyway to cut a long story short the BC are now insisting that they are not prepared to maintain the hedges because the entry is not adopted, some of us residents have tried to maintain the hedge as best as possible but due to the height it is difficult and therefore the BC is insisting that Bins are now collected at the end of the entry.
I find the situation completely farcical becuase we as residents are the innocent party in this yet we are being penalised because of BC incompetence and the developers dismissive attitude.

Any help would be very much appreciated. I have attached picture.
 
Rikki

Rikki

Well-Known Forumite
You will be able to find out who owns the bit of land from land registry, but will have to pay.
 
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ben0239

Well-Known Forumite
Thankyou for your reply Rikki

I do have a copy of my land registry which clearly shows that its not within our boundary, and asked the BC to get onto the Land Registry to resolve this issue but I am not holding my breathe. I havent been impressed with the way the BC have handled this and there unhelpful attitude. If I get no responce from the BC, I will pay the money to find out who owns the land from the Land Registry.
 
Gramaisc

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
ben0239 said:
Thankyou for your reply Rikki

I do have a copy of my land registry which clearly shows that its not within our boundary, and asked the BC to get onto the Land Registry to resolve this issue but I am not holding my breathe. I havent been impressed with the way the BC have handled this and there unhelpful attitude. If I get no responce from the BC, I will pay the money to find out who owns the land from the Land Registry.
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Keep the receipt and charge them (us!) when you show that you are not the culprit - even though you already have...

But, if the road is not adopted then they may have no obligation to collect from within. There are other places where I know that they do collect from unadopted roads, though.

Are there any doddery types affected? There is a scheme whereby the bins of elderly or infirm people will be collected and returned from their premises, without having to be dragged out to the road-side by the occupier.
 
Vespa-NL

Vespa-NL

Well-Known Forumite
It would be a very good idea to find out who owns that land. The metal fence still looks alright but without any maintenance it will rust, start hanging over and become a danger for people using that back lane.

I would also like to point out that there is also some green hanging over the road from the residents side of the road that needs to be addressed by the relevant resident.
 
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ben0239

Well-Known Forumite
Hi, Thankyou for all your replys.

I have spoken at length with the local councillor who is sympathetic and has raised the issue with the BC on a number of occasions but we dont seem to be getting anywhere.
Something I forgot to mention previously and which is not clear on the photos. The company the house builder used to erect the fences for the residents living on the crossings have attached the supporting posts to the metal fence in question. So, surely the Housebuilder can not have it both ways. They cant deny ownership of the land and then fix there fence to the metal fence.

I am too concerned about the maintenance of the metal fence and I am looking to paint the fence in the near future however this is dependant on the hedges being cut to enable this to happen.

There are number of 'old dears' that would be effected which I dont believe is fair when the situation is no fault of our own. I also do not quite understand why our entry is not adopted but all other entrys within Forebridge are, which I find a little bit strange in itself.
 
Gramaisc

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
ben0239 said:
There are number of 'old dears' that would be effected which I dont believe is fair when the situation is no fault of our own.
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My point about the elderly residents is that the council could end up cutting off their nose to spite their face, as they could end up having to collect and return bins all the way to and from the highway, if it becomes too much for some residents to cope with, should their 'no access' policy be enacted.
 
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ben0239

Well-Known Forumite
Gramaisc.... thats brilliant I never thought of that.
Thats definetly an avenue worth trying if they insist on digging there heals in.
 
tek-monkey

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
I'd like to see the deeds to the new houses.

Ask if you can have the land for free, and you will maintain it. Charge the homeowners whose fences are attached to yours a maintenance fee to allow their fences to stay up, use this to pay someone to regularly prune the hedge. Homeowners can complain to the builders, who will either have to pay up or fix the issue.
 
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