Dear Sir,

Further to letters – Mr A Elders – last week and Mr John D. Clare’s article re garden waste collection.

We experience all the same problems Mr Elders mentions due to overhanging trees, particularly Ash and have contacted the Council on several occasions requesting branches be cut back, only to be told the same as Mr Elders. We have also been told we could arrange to have trees cut back, at our own expense (quotes in the hundreds of pounds). Imagine saying this to a neighbour whose property your trees were overhanging causing 30 bags of leaves to fall into their garden every year, not to mention the blocked gutters!

On the last occasion I contacted the council via email with photographs showing the extent of the leaf problem and the 10 bags of leaves collected following just one of the many clear up sessions we have to carry out every Autumn/Winter. Someone from the Dept called to our home and once again gave the usual excuses why this work could not be done, but this person also made the comment that we could ‘tip’ the leaves back over the fence.

What we do in fact is: my husband walks round into the wood and I pass the bags over the fence for him to scatter amongst the trees, otherwise we would have a mountain of leaves rotting against our fence – so are we guilty of ‘fly tipping’?

Requests to extend the period of emptying of garden bins has also fallen on deaf ears.

As I write, we have a garden covered in more leaves and branches which the weather has prevented us from clearing, together with a bin full of leaves awaiting the start of the next round of collections – so come the Spring when we need to tidy our own shrubs we have no empty bin to utilise.

Yes we chose to buy a property backing onto woodland – yes the trees were there before us and all the other claptrap they spout – but we also pay our rates, therefore we have a right to expect our surroundings to be maintained and well managed.

Yours

Margaret Davison

As sent to the Editor of the Newton News. If you have a story that we may be interested in, please send to syd@newtonnews.co.uk