Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision not to prune a tree. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Mr X, complains that the Council will not prune a tree outside his living room window. Mr X says the tree blocks the view to the urban space beyond the tree. He says a view is a basic human right. Mr X wants the Council to prune the tree.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if we believe it is unlikely we would find fault. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

3. I read the complaint and the Council’s response. I considered a photograph of the tree and the Council’s tree policy. I invited Mr X to comment on a draft of this decision.

Back to top

What I found

Tree policy

4. The council prunes trees that are dead, diseased, dying, or posing a danger or causing an obstruction. It does not prune trees for cosmetic reasons or to alleviate problems caused by leaf fall, bird droppings or lack of light.
5. In English law there is no right to a view.

What happened

6. Since 2013 Mr X has been complaining about a tree outside his living room window. He says the leaves block his view and breaches his human right to a view. The Council has explained its tree policy to Mr X many times since 2013.
7. The Council pruned the tree in 2016 because its growth had made it unstable.
8. Mr X reported the tree again in 2019. The Council explained it would not do any work because the tree did not meet the conditions for pruning.
9. Mr X complained in 2020. In response the Council explained it had inspected the tree in May 2020 and it does not meet the criteria for work under the tree policy. The Council explained the tree policy to Mr X. The Council said it will continue to monitor the tree and do work if there are any safety concerns. It said it has placed the tree on its list for routine maintenance work, where there are no safety concerns, but it said there was no guarantee it would get the budget to do routine work.
10. Mr X is dissatisfied with the reply and wants the Council to prune the tree.

Assessment

11. I will not start an investigation because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council. The policy says the Council will prune a tree if it is dead, diseased or poses a risk or causes an obstruction. The Council pruned the tree in 2016 because the tree met the criteria for work. It has not pruned the tree since then because an inspection in 2020 showed that it does not currently meet the criteria. The Council will do work if it identifies any safety issues and it may do routine work if it has the money in the future. The Council’s decision is consistent with the policy so there is no reason to start an investigation.

Back to top

Final decision

12. I will not start an investigation because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman