My property looks directly onto a 'garden square' which is surrounded by the houses on Beaulieu Avenue. This comprises a grassed area with shrubs and a number of trees of varying sizes. The maintenance of the grass and shrubs is contracted out to Glendale but they tell me that responsibility for the trees remains with LB of Lewisham. The particular issue is with the growth of a flowering plum tree (or group of trees - it's hard to tell if its one tree with a multi-trunk growth habit or a small clump of them) directly opposite my house. I have been here nearly twenty years and to the best of my recollection this tree has never been pruned to constrain or shape its growth. Consequently it now overhangs the road by quite some distance. This causes a number of issues. For example, delivery vans often drive beneath the overhang, breaking off pieces of the tree in the process. And as the year goes on the tree produces quite a heavy crop of small yellow plums which can also be dislodged by the vans or fall on their own as they ripen. Besides the fruit fall, general tree debris (twigs, leaves) and bird lime also falls into the road beneath the tree, making that space unsuitable for parking. In recent years I have taken it upon myself to sweep up the resulting mess once a week but this can be quite hard work (the plums glue themselves to the tarmac!) and having recently undergone open heart surgery I'm not sure I'll want to carry on doing this work in future. So I am hoping that I can persuade a Lewisham tree surgeon to come and take a look and work out a plan for reducing the size of the tree so as to ameliorate these issues. I should stress that I don't want anything as drastic as felling done, as the green aspect of the 'garden square' is very attractive and the plum blossom in Spring is beautiful, albeit only for a short time. But I do think that the tree's overhanging of the carriageway has become enough of a problem that some intervention is now warranted. Finally I should add that there is a similar issue with trees on the far side of the garden that could also do with a look and perhaps some similar action, eg opposite no. 42 Beaulieu Avenue. <br/><br/>PS; I am retired and can usually be available in the daytime, so would be very happy to meet with the council's representative when s/he visits. Please give me a call to arrange this.
