News

Pensioner criticises £750 hedge service charge

By Jon Nurse
March 07, 2013

A despondent neighbour has slammed the council for charges ‘dreamt up on another planet’ after they quoted more than £700 to cut a high hedge.

Robin Reynolds, 60, turned to Wokingham Borough Council for help when an overgrown hedge from an unoccupied property next door began blocking out light to his home.

But the pensioner was astonished to find the council wanted to charge £751.80 to trim the trees and is asking how the average resident is expected to pay such a fee.

“It’s utterly disgraceful,” he said. “It appears they are ducking their responsibilities.

“My last resort is supposed to be the council. But they won’t open the envelope before I have paid their non-refundable charge. It’s dreamt up on another planet, it is more than double what most councils charge and far beyond the means of a state pensioner.

“If this approach to its duty is legal, then the law needs changing.”

Mr Reynolds, of St Michaels Court in Ruscombe, investigated fees from councils around the country and found the majority of his sample charged between £250 and £350.

But Wokingham Borough Council said it does not receive a Government subsidy offered to some authorities to lower the fee.

Councillor Keith Baker, executive member for highways and planning, said: “Conflict between neighbours over high hedges is luckily quite rare and it’s always best to try and resolve it through mediation and compromise.

“However in those few cases when mediation doesn’t work, under the high hedge legislation enacted in 2006, the public can ask the local council to rule on a complaint.

“However, no funds came with this new law so the Government allowed councils to recover their costs by charging a fee rather than adding an additional council tax burden on residents.

“Clearly this fee must cover the many officer hours involved, including hiring an independent consultant, as part of the process set out in the legislation. Our fees are consistent with our neighbouring councils.”

In Reading the charge is £300, while Bracknell Forest residents pay an initial investigation fee of £182 before a £552 charge if the council can proceed with the complaint.

Cllr Baker encouraged residents to use their borough councillor as an intermediary in disputes over hedges.

He added: “Recognising that not every resident can afford such costs, we also offer a free telephone service providing advice to assist residents in resolving disputes without resorting to the formal complaint process and subsequent fee.

“Feedback from residents on using this service has been extremely positive.”

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Most recent user comments 9 of 9

Wokingham Council administration's charges are well known to be high. Well that's how they describe their reason for charging £4 for 10 bin bags. So for them to slap on a admin charge for looking at trees is hardly surprising.

I Live Here!, Right Here!
07/03/2013 at 14:20

Sodium chlorate springs to mind.

Tobias
07/03/2013 at 14:16

There must be other avenues (sorry). We've only part of the story (i.e. what's happened between Mr. Reynolds and the owner or estate of the unoccupied house, if anything). Can joe public offer support by writing to the owner? Would the Woky Times step in and help negotiate a deal between the two parties (power of the press and all that)?

Beef Cake Argh!
07/03/2013 at 13:08

Why are they looking to charge the complainant? Surely the owner of the property that the hedge is on should foot the bill for the council to do the work or get it done privately at their cost if they prefer.

Dave35
07/03/2013 at 11:29

BCA - in a commercial environment you may be right, but only Wokingham Borough can provide this service to Wokingham residents - it is a monopoly.

To protect residents from councils abusing their monopoly position the government have said they can only cover their costs, which seems fair to me.

Therefore the question remains why is the costs of administration so much more expensive in Wokingham?

This is just like the recent story "Ice cream man's fury at borough's high licence fee" (http://www.getwokingham.co.uk/business/s/2129546_ice_cream_mans_fury_at_boroughs_high_licence_fee), where it was reported that Wokingham charge £2400 compared to reading's charge of £800 for an annual van licence.

Can someone explain why administration appears to cost so much more in Wokingham?

Phil Challis, woodley
07/03/2013 at 11:09

If I don't want to take work on, I'll hike my price.

Beef Cake Argh!
07/03/2013 at 10:47

The may be an argument that the council must cover their costs but is it really that much cheaper in Reading and Bracknell?

If the aim is to just cover costs then Wokingham residents might ask why Wokingham's administration is so expensive.

The quote "Wokingham Borough Council said it does not receive a Government subsidy offered to some authorities to lower the fee." is surely incorrect - I have never heard of such a specific subsidy for tree investigations.