Ding ding: Claralou's overgrown vegetation versus Council, Round 2

Some of you may remember that my local council has threatened me with - I don't know, fines, hanging, drawing and quartering, something or other - unless I remove a particularly fine tangle of ivy and jasmine from my back wall. Indisputably, it is blocking a public right of way. Actually, take the 'l' out of 'public' and you'd have a very good idea what the place looks like, but that's by the way. Anyway, I fully admit that I've let the thing rip. I got fed up with having a toilet/dumping ground behind my house and I haven't been overly keen to go around and maintain things.

Neither OH nor I particularly wanted to tackle the job ourselves and heft the stuff down to the dump, so we thought we'd hire a nice local team of garden clearance people to do it for us. Just one snag. There was an awful lot of dumped rubbish under the greenery and working around it was beyond the call of duty for anyone who thought of himself as a gardener rather than someone who removed industrial waste. So I wrote to the council, saying that we were all geared up to remove the damn plants, but first the rubbish needed to be cleared. To my astonishment, I got a very nice letter back saying that of course they would clear the rubbish and give us a bit of a stay of execution until the job was done. Hmmm. This was sounding far too easy. There must be a catch.

A few days later, I was out in the garden when I heard the joyful sounds of a rubbish van arriving. Hoorah! We might finally get rid of the assorted junk which had been building up for years, including the remains of a van which was burnt out well over a year ago. Five minutes later the rubbish truck was gone. Wow! These people must be supermen! Chaps who can lift that sort of filthy debris in the space of minutes deserve Olympic gold! OH rushed around to admire our new, pristine access road. And found this. Remember, this is after the clear-up.



I'm afraid a bit of a barney ensued. The chap from the council returned with his rubbish operatives in tow and asked me, with no apparent irony in his voice, to point out exactly what rubbish I'd like removed. I won't bore you with the ugly details. Suffice to say I'm only 5'3" and, as you know, many tyrants of history were small. Anyway, after a bit of an altercation he said he would contact my gardening guys directly and see if they minded working around potentially hazardous waste.

I've just had a call from a chap at the gardening firm. He's a really nice guy, the kind you can depend on. What the council actually said to him was: 'unless you can guarantee that you're doing this work by Saturday we'll get our own contractors in and charge Mr and Mrs Claralou a thousand quid for the privilege.' (To judge from the rubbish 'clearance', I assume we wouldn't get much removed for our thousand quid. Probably two ivy leaves and a single stem of jasmine.) Chap from gardening firm explained very patiently that, all being well, they were planning to be around by seven on Saturday, but even they couldn't control the weather. Watch this space.

PS lest you think that it's just my plants which are causing the problem, here is a view of another part of our access road, again after the clear up.

 

I'd be fuming Clare.

 

what a disgrace!!!!!
you sort them out girl, i really hate bully boy tactics

 

Go girl, good on you.........councils drive me nuts sometimes..

One side of our garden borders a public footpath; its a quiet one luckily, but the council are responsible for the tidying, grass cutting and weeding along the edges. A few weeks back I watched a council worker spraying weedkiller along the edge of the path further down and he ran out, I heard him muttering to his mate "oh I can't be bothered to go and refill, wait until someone complains" , the bit that hasn't been weedkilled is along the otherside of our fence and a bit further along, it looks a mess now the weeds are pushing on for 2-3ft high and are falling across the path, you have to tread on some to get along the path, just hope we don't get any complaints or any letters from the council!!!!

I go to the trouble of cutting our laurel hedge back off the path 2-3 times a year which is at the beginning of the path on the front of our house as it is our responsibility, but I'm not weeding a 100 yards or so of path or buying weedkiller for something that isn't our responsibility..

Thing is do I sit it out or make a polite phone call to report it???

P.S. sorry for hijacking your thread ClaraLou....

 

Infuriating. I trust you've taken plenty of photographic evidence, before and "after", and documented all letters and phone calls. I suspect they wouldn't follow through on the £1,000 charge, they are just using it as a stick to beat you with.

Could you get neighbours to complain independently about the parlous state of the access road? Or would that be an own-goal if it redirected attention to your jasmine and ivy?

I've several times received bossy letters from the council about overhanging vegetation, one time backed up with photographic evidence, even though all the stuff around my fence is kept under (what I consider to be) control. I was a bit amazed that they could afford to pay some jobsworth to patrol the streets of a reasonably respectable suburb seeking out this kind of misdemeanour. No doubt they think it would add to the quality of other residents' lives if I torched the roses and wisteria and put up a 6' concrete wall.

 

Yes. The problem is that my ivy/jasmine have sort of become scape-plants for everything which is wrong with the area. I've lived here long enough to know that the dumping had already started when the jasmine was just a cutting, but I can't prove it. My greenery has come in very useful as a fire curtain; before it was there, cars and vans were parked inches from my gate before being torched. Now, the plants simply get a bit scorched. But I'm not going to win that one. To be honest, I'd be very pleased if the place was kept properly and I'd be happy to play my part. But I know this won't happen. Once the Council has got the bee out of its bonnet concerning my plants, no one will be round again for another twenty years. The 'pavement' is so broken down that no one will be able to walk on it, even without rubbish and plants.

It is funny how excited people become about a few plants, isn't it? As you say, brutal, Stalinist concrete constructions - no problem. A stray frond of honeysuckle - major transgression.

 

OMG, do you think it's time to sell up and ship out?

 

Yes, absolutely. The trouble is, our house isn't worth very much so making the next step up is difficult. There's no point in a sideways move to another house like the one we already have because we may well encounter the same problems. Better the devil you know, and all that.

I think at some point we may have to take a calculated risk. Hopefully before I lose it completely and get banged up for murdering someone.

 

Oh wow Clara.....to say that they are going to charge you a thousand quid, thats just crazy!!

I would take pictures every few days from here on out, and document everything, and when the trash starts to pile up again, and it sounds like it will......keep calling "buddy" at the council and stay on his case to get it removed ....now!!

Its a shame that someone had to complain , when from what i can see, anything including Ivy would have looked better then whats there now!!

We'll take donations to get you out if you get arrested:WINK1: ....us short people need to stick together

 

Thank you, Penny.

There have been times when I have definitely thought that my plants, overgrown and neglected as they are, do nothing but improve the place.

Still, it's not all bad. We do have this five minutes down the road (not with snow right now, though, obviously.)

 

Thats beautiful Clara....i could handle that.

Quesion, why is the tree fenced off?

 

It's a very old Indian Bean Tree. People have been saying that's it's on its last legs for as long as I can remember, but it still survives and flowers each year. The local kids used to climb on it and were weakening the tree, so it was railed off. It's been looking a lot better as a result. A young tree, grown from one of its seeds, has been planted next to it so that there will be a replacement when the old one finally dies off.

 

Ah ok.....glad they did that to try and save it.

Bet its gorgeous when it does flower

 

I'll remember to take some snaps next time I'm passing; it has masses of white flowers in the summer and then long dangly seed pods later in the season (hence the name).

 

Yes please, i would love to see some