I have some neighbours who are a mixture of The Simpsons and The Science of Stupid types. Not suprisingly, we dont get on with them. Even the woman's 'boy friend' is stupid.

A few years ago, while driving out of our cul de sac and more interested in waving goodbye to his concubine, he drove his Nissan GT-R over our rockery stones and wanted me to pay for the damage to his carbon fibre splitter. Solicitor's advice told him to foxtrot oscar so he came back one wet night to drive over the lawn and leave lovely tyre tracks.

Anyway, this morning he rocks up with a chainsaw and some rope. His concubine wants an established 20+ year old tree taking out so they can park their 3 cars on a to be created drive. Nothing wrong with that.

But we each live in the 'bowl' of the cul de sac and the tree is immediately to the left of my actual house. The tree is approximately 30 to 35 feet high. It is over 20+ years old because it was planted by the developer when we bought off plan. The family had a tree surgeon in last year to cut down a lot (and I mean a lot!) of branches but for whatever reason (cost?) they didnt take the whole tree down. It is still sizeable.

At about 10am this morning, the 'boyfriend' rocks up. He gets his concubine's lad to climb a ladder and attach a rope, probably 2" diameter rope if Im generous, to one of the upper branches. Now commonsense would tell me not to attempt this job but even if I did, Id start at the top of the tree and start lopping off the thick upper branches first. I'd estimate these to be at least 12" thick, quite heavy so you wouldnt want them just to 'fall' when cut, either.

Unbelievably, he then starts the chainsaw and starts trying to make a striaght cut (no lumerjack's wedge cut out) through the tree trunk about 3 foot above pavement level. Obviously, because this is green wood, he struggles probably because his chainsaw is ok on 4"x4" poles but not sharp enough or teeth spaced for a large tree.

Lots of smoke and 5 minutes later he stops for a rest and let the chainsaw cool down. Then another 5 minutes cutting and break. Then another and another.

I was on the verge of calling the Police because this was clearly dangerous when they gave up. This was \ is clearly dangerous and real Science of Stupid stuff. There's no way anyone holding that rope would be able to control where the tree would fall. If it had come down, it would have blocked 2 of my neighbours access (strange cul de sac layout with 2 houses having a shared access between my house and the tree owner's house). Or, it would be laid upto 35 feet into the 'bowl' and blocked other's access. Or, it could have come crashing into my property, a thought I dont really like thinking about.

They have now given up but of course, the tree now has a cut around half the circumference of the trunk. Id estimate the trunk isat least 2 feet thick at this point. I cannot tell how deep the cut is but the chainsaw blade looked about 4 or 5" across. They have also cut through some roots on their house side of the tree which makes any direction of fall more likely to be toward my house rather than into the bowl of the cul de sac.

I really dont know what to do. If I try and talk to her, I'll get abuse from the son (and daughter) and probably no sense from the mother. But, I feel the tree has now been left in a dangerous condition with some roots hacked away and now a huge slice cut into the trunk. Thank goodness, no gales are forecast.

Given the current virus situation, I dont know if the Police, council or anyone will be bothered. Any helpful advice?