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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