Reply With QuoteRound up and a sprayer will sort that. I accept, at your expense, but simple enough to sort
Hoping some knowledgable residents of this parish can offer some advice. We have an area of council owned land at the rear of our property. Up until 2020 this was maintained regularly by the council, it was never a manicured lawn but it was kept to sensible levels that could be walked on. This maintenance stopped and I first complained in 2021, which was ignored completely. I’m now into my third year of complaining and I’m not letting it drop.
The land is connected to woodland but is separated by a footpath from the actual wood. The wall on our side is around 5 feet and probably an extra foot the other side due to our patio increasing the ground level on our side. The weeds on the other side are higher than our wall, brambles and bushes are growing over, and through, our wall, and we are having a constant battle with ivy growing on the other side which has damaged our wall.
This time, for the first time, the council have given me an answer. Three weeks after my latest complaint I was told, verbally, that someone had been to view the land, they apologise and the ground would be cleared within seven days. A follow up message the next day was equally apologetic and also said that the maintenance work would be put on a regular rota with their contractor. The seven days came and went and I phoned today to chase it up to be told that, in fact, nobody had visited and no work was scheduled. As a result of this I asked to escalate the request to a formal complaint.
This evening I have received a phone call from the council contractors. The upshot is that the council have designated this plot of land as “wild green space” and the contractors will not do any maintenance work to it. I was told that I can cut back any overhanging weeds and continue to pull the ivy, and chunks of masonry, from my wall, but under no circumstances am I allowed to do any work from the other side of the wall, not that I could get to it anyway.
Where do I go from here? I understand the need for wild spaces but this seems extreme. The overgrown weeds and brambles are damaging my boundary wall, they are an ideal breeding ground for vermin, and the last time my wife attempted to do some pruning back of the brambles she suffered a nasty scrape down one arm after slipping off a step. Any advice on next steps would be much appreciated.
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Round up and a sprayer will sort that. I accept, at your expense, but simple enough to sort
I’d highlight the concerns and ask who to send the bill to for clearance and pest control as well as damage to the wall, as well as the details of the council’s insurance company to make a claim for injury caused by clearing back the rubbish.
Even areas of wilding have a degree of maintenance, was a proper consultation carried out before the decision was made?
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That’s going to take more than roundup to clear the larger stuff.Originally Posted by demonloop
The response from the contractor when I asked if he seriously thought I should be clearing the area myself was “the area will be monitored and any action outside of your property would be illegal.”
I will certainly ask for insurance details, that might make someone jump.
"Wild green space" or "Saves us £££s"
In fairness, it will be wildlife friendly with all that buddleia, bramble and nettle. And ivy is a magnet for birds, bees and butterflies.
I'm not sure if I'd be that unhappy. We have Virginia creeper all over our fence down the side and back of the garden. I just trim it back each year, but it looks amazing in autumn when it changes colour. Probably not quite the same thing as your ivy.
It does sound like the council are taking the piss with the wild green space claim, but no idea how you'd challenge it?
There'll be a website for council's legal responsibilities to its land. Also, you could try Land Registry and see how the land is designated, if at all?
Agreed.
Looking on the bright side, it’s good protection against wound be burglars.
We had a similar issue, wild area the other side of the garden, was maintained by the council for years then it just stopped.
Long story short it grew out of control and destroyed our hedge on our boundary.
Lots of dialogue complaining etc and council finally agreed to do something about it.
We were on holiday and our neighbour sent photos and the area had been completely cleared including our boundary hedge which was completely gone leaving the garden exposed.
Again lots of complaining/emails/dialogue/ visits etc finally after 5 years they agreed they were at fault.
They compensated us and we built a wall, they promised the area would be maintained but it hasn't been. I now ask the guy who cuts our grass to trim the other side whilst he's at it because the council won't do it and I don't want to go through it again!!
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I'm not sure that would be a good idea. It isn't your land and the council have told you it is designated wild. They have also told you not to do any more than cut any overhanging growth.
Most councils self insure
Looks to me that you should be not saying anything and put a fence around it.
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Agree 100%, OP's time would be better spent doing something about it rather than arguing with the council. I have a similar area behind my boundary and I keep my access path clear by controlling the weeds etc.
you can argue till you're blue in the face but sometimes it makes far more sense to take sensible action and solve the problem yourself.
Bombard local councillors for your area on social media asking them if it's acceptable to leave an area so poorly maintained..... I'm sure they'll like the invoice from your private contractor for maintaing your boundaries that are being damaged by their weeds???
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I agree with the roundup idea. Cheapest to buy the active ingredient glyphosate in concentrated form, dilute and spray liberally over your wall every week for a month and it should die back.
No chance. Public liability can run into millions - they will insure
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Tamworth pigs. Look no further.
You have no idea how effective these wonderful animals are. Works better than Round-up/Glyphosate. They eat brambles with roots and all. I don't know how they do it, but the thorns don't hurt them in their mouths. My neighbour used them om a piece of council-owned land with the same situation like you*) He put up a temp electric fence, hired a few pigs (You can hire them in the Netherlands for clearing grounds) and it was and is as clean as a whistle. He has now bought 3 of those Tamworth ladies and they keep his grounds absolutely clean from bushes, brambles etc.
The 'wild green space' comes out of a hat like a magician's rabbit. I would like to see the council's proof of that in writing. As far as I can tell from your story, only the contractor mentioned it. He can have his reasons for letting you believe it's 'wild green space'. As in: he's doing the job for a fixed price and this added piece makes it too expensive for him.
*) It's about an unpaved path of about 500m. My neighbour owns half, we own the other half of the path. There's an equally long stretch of land next to the path and that's owned by the council. And that stretch is totally overgrown with bushes etc. I asked a farmer with a big @ss flail mower to help me with my part. That was before the pigs came into the equation. The farmer's 15 y/o son, sort of young Kaleb from Clarkson's Farm, came over and leveled the green hell in 5 minutes. From there on, I am able to maintain it myself with a lot of help from the Nordic God Husqvarna. And when things might get overgrown again, then there's always the top predator Kubota.
Council never came round to ask.
Last edited by thieuster; 20th July 2023 at 22:58.
Fid out who the CEO is of the council. E-mail them with the photos. Usually works.
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
I wonder how many claims councils across the country have received under the ‘Access to Neighbouring Land Act 1992’? Your brick wall will require inspection and maintenance on both sides and having to fight through a jungle to carry out those operations on the jungle side will become increasingly difficult. An hour or two with a brush cutter will keep your wall clear and it might be something that your neighbours, particularly those with the timber fence seen in your photographs, would contribute towards. I’m all for wilding and keeping spaces green but where I’ve been involved in such projects, we’ve designed in an access strip alongside boundary walls such as yours.
Registered letter asking them to confirm that any damage their vegetation causes to your wall (or that results from the denied access for maintenance work such as repointing) they will be liable for. State you will assume they agree if no reply received within 28 days.
But also, as others have said, maybe start with your local councillor, they will almost certainly see reason and advocate for you from within (if they are any good, which most local councillors are).
Leave a hedge overhanging a pavement and you are likely to get a notice of action from the council with a deadline yet they are the worst offenders!
Some excellent suggestions, thanks all. Attempts to contact the councillors should be interesting, I have been blocked on all of their social media platforms since I dared to, fairly and calmly, criticise our local Tory MP a couple of years ago.
I think you should stop making noise, leave it until next year and fence it in. See if anyone notices.
"A man of little significance"
Used thinners from a body shop effective at clearing weeds, only clear a foot from the bottom of the wall and council none the wiser?
Based on the first two photos, the neighbours may already have done that.
I used to work in Property for 12 years and experienced similar many times over.
As has been mentioned previously, if they are disinterested in the land you could ask if you could look after the plot under license (maybe worth it if you wish to keep it all legal and above board), or as suggested just go for a straight up land grab and after 10 years claim it as your own under adverse possession. In my experience my Council generally did self insure; but would carry Public Liability to ten million quid, but mainly self insure and accept trips and fall claims from our public car parks up to 75k per year before the Insurance arm of the Council would say its time to resurface the car park. They carried more influence than any condition survey.
I am very glad to be out of it.
Best of luck.
I was just reading the same thing in Canadian law about Adverse possession, but wasn't sure as it mentioned that the land had to be in use in order to claim it.
My neighbor wanted to put plants down the middle of our properties, but I read that if he maintained the area on my side. He could claim it as his own, so I put a stop to that. He planted, but on his side only
Yes, if one maintains the land as if it were their own, after the defined time they can claim it as theirs. You did the right thing.
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