Scottish Conservative Councillor for Inverkeithing & Dalgety Bay, Dave Dempsey has called for a cut, ideally to zero, in the fee that Fife Council charges for an application under the High Hedges Act.
Cllr Dempsey said “If your neighbour builds something that’s too high, Fife Council will investigate at no cost to you; if they let their trees get too tall, the Council will charge you (not your neighbour) over £500 just to take a look. I opposed that when the Act came into effect a decade ago but I lost that argument. The Scottish Government of the day – the same one we have now – had dropped this extra task onto councils and the councils wanted to recoup any extra costs.
“Since then, I’ve tried to help quite a number of constituents whose lives have been blighted by unmaintained, over tall trees. Some have to keep their lights on in the height of summer. Others have gardens where nothing grows. Others live in fear of trees and branches falling on their homes or on children playing in their garden.
“The law places no demands on tree owners to keep their trees in check. An owner is negligent if something untoward happens that could have reasonably been foreseen but it’s wrong that a neighbour has to wait till a tree or branch falls to get any sort of comeback.
“The High Hedges Act was supposed to fix this but it hasn’t worked. The public are reluctant to pay hundreds of pounds for the Council to take a look. Many simply can’t afford that. In some cases, the Council is the tree owner. ‘Why should I pay the Council when it’s judge and jury’ said one householder.
“This £500+ charge has to go, so at the next Council budget I’ll be looking to propose its removal.
