Fears wall could topple on to passer-by

10:50am Friday 8th August 2008

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By David Paine »

A WORCESTER man is angry he has been refused permission to cut down two trees in his garden that are destroying a 182-year-old brick wall.

Donald Smith said he is worried the wall along Hebb Street, off The Upper Tything, will collapse on to passers-by if he is not allowed to restore it.

Worcester City Council has refused to relax preservation orders on the lime and 12-inch sycamore, meaning he cannot do work on the wall because the builder said he would need to get rid of the trees’ root systems to create a flat surface.

However, planning officers say he should either take out a section of the wall and replace it with railings or work around the roots.

Mr Smith, of Britannia Square, said: “They want me to take part of the wall out and put railings around the sycamore. I would be the laughing stock of Worcester if I did that because it’s only a little tree.”

Mr Smith, a retired chemistry lecturer, said he was still waiting to hear a solution about the lime tree.

Mr Smith said removing the trees would help prevent further damage to the walls and his property, but said his main concern was people’s safety. He said the wall, which is leaning against a concrete lampost and shedding bricks, is in such a poor state of repair that he has attached signs to it warning people of the danger.

“People are forced to walk close to the wall because there are always cars parked along Hebb Street,” he said. “One day it is going to fall on somebody. Any civil liability has been transferred from me to the council by their refusal to allow me to take out these trees. They deny that but I’m quite sure it’s so.

“I think they are being very unreasonable about it.”

The city council’s planning manager Paul O’Connor said the safety of the wall was still Mr Smith’s responsibility.

Mr O’Connor said his officers were reluctant to lose healthy trees, especially ones in the Britannia Square Conservation Area.

He said discussions were on-going with Mr Smith about finding a resolution to the problem.