Vue des Champs

la Rue de la Petite Lande

Trinity
JE3 5AE
30th October 2007
Comite des Connetables
East Wing, RJ&HS
Route de la Trinite
Trinity

Dear Sirs,
Branchage Consultation
I offer the following responses to the Green Paper questions.
1) The provisions of the current law are adequate, although the
Connetables and their Roads Inspectors need diligence and judgement in
monitoring potentially dangerous locations for the need to order an ad hoc
trim ahead of schedule.
2) The visits should not be brought forward. It is generally impractical to
cut only the growth over the road or path without taking the opportunity to
trim the rest of the bank or verge, except for small domestic gardens. As the
Green Paper points out, earlier cutting will suppress spring and summer
flowers, to the detriment of both the aesthetics and ecology of the
countryside. Only hazardous obstructions of the roads and paths should be
removed early.
3) Increasing the headroom for the benefit of juggernaut lorries is
justifiable on main roads and access roads to warehouses, packing sheds
and other premises requiring regular heavy freight movements as a matter
of course.
4) Maintaining the 12' headroom on byways other than commercial access
roads is a disincentive to their use by unsuitable traffic. (To illustrate with an
anecdote; several years ago, a Commodore Express driver tried taking his
artic up the byway in which I live, doing significant permanent damage to
the bank at the front of my own and next-door neighbour's properties, as I
later discovered. He fouled his trailer roof on the 12' branch of an oak tree in
the opposite field, and had serious difficulty getting free. I have seen no
more such vehicles since.)
5) Certainly the recipient of the service charge, if there is one, should be
the responsible party, be they the owner or a professional managing agent.
If there is not, reference to who pays the foncier rate should determine who
is ultimately responsible. If there is no separate foncier identifiable then
multiple occupiers should simply be jointly and severally liable.
6) If it is overgrowing the roadway it should be cut, whatever it is. I average
1 or 2 van mirrors per year lost to branches leaning over the roadway that
have been persistently forgiven by their parishes' inspections. However,
landowners should be encouraged to leave flowers that merely grow beside
the road.
 7) I have never personally encountered any problem regarding clearup from
either my own or anyone else's branchage.
8) It would be good, if the inspecting teams can spare the time. However,
some public education is needed on identifying the offending plants. I can
only recognise 2 of them and I did not know that one of them was
prohibited.
9) If the Connetables have been finding a problem, they should certainly try
to remedy it.

Yours faithfully
David Rotherham