On my way home this afternoon in the motorhome I side swiped a hedge. As usual the awning housing, which protrudes by about 4 inches, took the brunt of the impact, but this time, rather than the readily available and easily replaceable endcaps, the actual housing was damaged.
I have just fashioned a reasonable looking repair panel out of an old endcap so am feeling slightly less tetchy now, but am wondering about the greater picture.
In my corner of the UK there many miles of B roads where the landowners must rely on folks such as myself to trim their hedges, as these lean outwards from the road/verge edge and, in places, meet in the middle of the road. Whilst this looks delightfully rustic and is no problem for cars or rugged lorries, it is a huge problem for smarter panel vans and overpriced camper vans.
I am not looking for a scapegoat, as I know the road well, and so should have been prepared for oncoming vehicles, but nevertheless if there had been a foot or so of unobstructed verge available, I would suffered no damage as my wheels remained on the tarmac at all times.
Is there any duty or responsibility on the part of landowners to keep their hedges off the road in the same way that householders have to keep the pavements unobstructed by vegetation?
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One mans junk is another mans treasure
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In short, yes. It's the responsibility of your local council to enforce this. Report it to their highways department. They should then arrange a site visit, and if they're in agreement with you regarding the hedge in question they'll write to the landowner requesting them to cut it back within a certain amount of time, something like 30 days. If the landowner doesn't comply, the council will then arrange for the hedge to be cut and the landowner billed accordingly.
There is specific legislation regarding this but it escapes me at present.
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On a similar topic I have noticed on my way to/from work that a speed limit change sign (in this case 30/50 and vice versa) is becoming increasingly obscured by the big hedges on both sides of the road. It is in a rural-ish location so the hedges in question don't belong to a householder as such.
Anyway my point is what kind of means test is there to decide whether or not a sign is obscured or still legible from a legal point of view? If I was to get stopped for speeding (just for arguments sake) not far up the road from where the limit dropped from 50mph to 30mph, could I argue that the speed limit is unenforcable because the main signage at the point of change is 'hidden' from reasonable view?
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The last time I discussed this with our local Highways superintendant; he said that it was no longer their policy to keep hedges away from the roadway to preserve clear vision. In fact, they were deliberately letting them grow out.
His justification was that creating completely blind bends was shown to reduce traffic speeds.
When asked; he admitted that he'd never been a cyclist or ridden a horse....
[Road casualties have shown a sharp increase since this policy was implemented... Obviously, many more speed cameras are needed....]
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Further to my last, the relevant section of legislation is Highways Act 1980, section 154.
(If the obstruction is a hedge, tree, shrub or vegetation of any description that overhangs a highway so as to endanger or obstruct the passage of vehicles, pedestrians or horse-riders )
A printable form to request your local authority to take action is available here;
www.defra.gov.uk/WILDLIFE-COUNTRYSIDE/cl/row-obstr...c
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there's a T jusction that I turn right out of on the way to work each morning that's getting very difficult to see out of. The verge there is higher than the road and the grass is a couple of feet tall so I and everyone else can barely see along the road to check its safe to pull out. I know that it would be impossible to get a clear view in a Caterham 7 and probably an Elise as well.
Who'd be responsible for the accident?
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I read often, only post occasionally
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Some people don't deserve jobs with any responsibilities. What an eejit.
Show him this post, give him my e-mail address and see how long it is before I make him cry... : )
They won't be happy till cars are banned will they? Back to the Dark Ages; I expect the feudal system to return in the near future.... and then we can finally get rid of this "voting" charade and get back to being a proper monarchy again.
Hurrah!
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Landowners (and councils) won't cut hedges between the end of Matrch & August for fear of falling foul of the Wildlife & Countryside Act which essentially prohibts cutting afetr the end of March to protect nesting birds. In our corner of Norfolk, we also view this as a useful caravan deterrent :-)
Verges are a different matter, however.....
Davros
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Our council (East Yorkshire) has a web page where you can report trees.
I did just last week where a tree branch was overhanging the highway and low down - low enough to make me take avoiding action on the bike.
It was removed two days later. However, it was a tree in the pavement, so the councils responsibility.
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Lots of hedge cutting going on in my neck of the woods, council and private.
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My local council recently called for house and business owners to make sure that any trees on their property didn't obstruct or provide a danger to pedestrians or vehicles.
However, as is often the case with such proclamations, the council failed to ensure first that its own street "tree furniture" was suitably trimmed if necessary.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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The problem is that when the council (or whoever) actually get round to cutting the hedge they use a glorified lawnmower mounted on a tractor. The process of cutting scatters twigs and (often) thorns all over the road, causing punctures in many car & cycle tyres.
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The position where we live (west Wales) is that the council cut the hedges to a height represented by two passes of a tractor-mounted mower/cutter machine, but the frontager is responsible for anything higher.
A few years ago I was given a warning by the council about my trees overhanging the lane from both sides, and was told the clearance that must be maintained was 16 feet vertically from the edge of the road metalling. Presumably it is a lower clearance on a C or D road than on a B or A - there is no way a double decker bus or large lorry could get within about 4 miles of our house.
The legal clearance does not allow for bodywork that overhangs beyond the metalled part of the road, nor for the extra overhang caused by the road camber. In our slightly sunken lane the council mow the hedges vertically in line with the lower stone wall . Any vehicle with even a 4" overhang would hit stonework, tree trunks, or simply scrape the hedges.
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The problem is that when the council (or whoever) actually get round to cutting the hedge they use a glorified lawnmower mounted on a tractor. The process of cutting scatters twigs and (often) thorns all over the road causing punctures in many car & cycle tyres.
The "glorified lawn mower" is a hedge cutter and does a pretty good job of cutting hedges and mulching the residue.
nearly all hedgecutters have a head with rotating flails which do the cutting. If you don't want the schrapnel every where then circular saw head must be used which are jolly nasty. They can shatter (bad for the operator that is sat close by). They also cut the branches off whole, which would then need to be picked up be hand and fed into a chipper and carted away. There would still be thornes every where, which do puncture bike tyres but won't puncture any car tyre that would pass and mot. So do you want your council tax to pay one man to flail the hedges and leave some bits on the road which are gone in half an hour, or have one man whith a circular saw hedgecutter followed by a big van and 2 or three blokes picking up the bits?
.*********
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The problem is that when the council (or whoever) actually get round to cutting the hedge they use a glorified lawnmower mounted on a tractor. The process of cutting scatters twigs and (often) thorns all over the road causing punctures in many car & cycle tyres.
Because most hedge cutting contractors are too lazy to fit the catcher bucket under the flail blades. The bucket is then emptied when full. The word is where I live that the local tyre fitting outfits give them a backhander not to use the buckets!!
Seriously though, they must use them and IIRC they can be reported for causing a hazard to drivers if they do not.
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> Because most hedge cutting contractors are too lazy to fit the catcher bucket under the flail blades. The bucket is then emptied when full. >>
I have never seen one with a catcher - I didn't know they existed. Round here the process is known as "trashing", which means the machine rips the hedge to pieces and flings shrapnel and quite large pieces of branch all over the place, even over the hedge into my garden.
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I obviously avoid the narrower lanes, the B roads I use are the only routes between the local town and the surrounding villages (A roads are an endangered species in this part of Norfolk) and are therefore also bus routes.
As a result of the above helpful comments, I have emailed the local Highways Department requesting details of their policy on vegetation encroachment, stressing the safety and consequential damage issues, these subjects being dear to any councils heart!
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One mans junk is another mans treasure
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All credit due to Norfolk Highways Department; I got a reply today from 'CustomerServices' requesting details of the problem locations in order "that the defects may be rectified"
Another triumph for the back room!
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One mans junk is another mans treasure
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They ought to make prisoners cut overhanging hedges and grass verges as in Cool Hand Luke.
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L\'escargot.
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Good idea, L'escargot. They could do the numerous potholes on Gloucestershire's neglected cart tracks at the same time, Make a proper chain gang of it.
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