A granddad goes toe-to-toe together with his native council over a ‘towering’ tree that’s blocking the sunshine out of his house.
Doug Lewis, 69, says his home is shrouded in darkness every day due to the tree and it makes it arduous for his disabled grandson to go to him.
Doug, from Cramlington, Northumberland, has lived at his Kendal Drive house for nearly 40 years.
Again when he first moved in, the Ash tree was tiny – however now it’s so massive he will get only one hour of daylight a day in the course of the summer time.
The leaves of the tree contact his bed room window and principally act as blackout curtains for the pensioner.
Doug stated: ‘The principle subject is the tree cover and the shortage of sunshine to the property.
‘After I moved right here it was a pleasant little tree however nobody has maintained it over these 40 years so it has simply been getting larger and greater and now it’s simply towering over the property.
‘When you’re in the home the branches are practically touching the bed room window.
‘There aren’t any leaves on the tree in the meanwhile however when it’s in leaf we’ve a few one-hour window of solar.
‘The sun comes around the house at about 12pm and we started to get a little bit of sunlight in the house but within an hour it goes back behind the tree.’
However his woes don’t finish there. His grandson makes use of a wheelchair and the fallen twigs and leaves make it a ‘struggle’ for him to make use of the trail.
The roots even managed to interrupt by means of the tarmac, making it much more tough for his grandson to get round.
‘My grandson is disabled and my daughter has got a mobility car with a ramp for his electric wheelchair,’ Doug stated.
‘The tree root was pushing the path up making it wobbly. The council didn’t take away the tree root they simply flattened the trail.’
Doug stated the council did clean over the root-riddled path final 12 months however the fixed rainfall of twigs and leaves isn’t really easy to take away.
He has spent the final three years urging the council to prune the tree cover by not less than 30% so he can lastly benefit from the sunshine and see his household.
‘You work all of your life and want to be able to enjoy your retirement,’ Doug added, ‘but you have this massive tree towering over your property and your life.’
Northumberland County Council stated the tree is ‘priority three’ because it doesn’t pose a danger to the general public.
This implies there isn’t any time scale to keep up it, solely when ‘resources allow’ it to occur.
‘Our risk-based approach to tree works means we must attend first and foremost to trees that represent a current or developing public safety risk,’ a spokeswoman stated.
‘We are aware of the tree in question and the requests from Mr Lewis. Works have been identified and these will be carried out according to our schedule of lower-priority works.’
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