# Getting rid of fallen leaves from council trees



## Complainer (1 Nov 2009)

Our house borders on a public green area, with some trees bordering our back wall. This means that in October and November, I spend a hour most weekends gathering up the fallen leaves in our garden. I don't mind the time involved or the cost of the black bags, but I do mind having to pay Dun Laoghaire Rathdown €5 to disposing of the green waste each week.

I have a vague recollection that the owner of a tree is responsible for branches which fall or are cut down by a neighbour. Are the council responsible for the waste that falls from their trees?


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## annfield (1 Nov 2009)

is this a wind up?


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## PaddyBloggit (1 Nov 2009)

Why not send them back over the wall?


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## Complainer (1 Nov 2009)

PaddyBloggit said:


> Why not send them back over the wall?


I'm not sure it would be in our interests to have a large pile of rotting vegitation at our back wall, in terms of what vermin that might attract. Also, it would be physically near impossible to do this, given the height of the wall and the amount of bushes on our side growing right up to the wall. There really is no clear access to be able to be pouring bags of leaves over.

Also, it just seems a bit anti-socia.


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## Diziet (1 Nov 2009)

Complainer said:


> Our house borders on a public green area, with some trees bordering our back wall. This means that in October and November, I spend a hour most weekends gathering up the fallen leaves in our garden. I don't mind the time involved or the cost of the black bags, but I do mind having to pay Dun Laoghaire Rathdown €5 to disposing of the green waste each week.
> 
> I have a vague recollection that the owner of a tree is responsible for branches which fall or are cut down by a neighbour. Are the council responsible for the waste that falls from their trees?



Make leaf-mould out of them and get soil conditioner for your garden for free.


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## PaddyBloggit (1 Nov 2009)

Reckon Diziet has the best idea - mulch 'em and use it courtesy of the Council.


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## mercman (1 Nov 2009)

Did you ever think of moving address to somewhere more suitable ?? Nice apartments on the 18th.Floor in Peckham, South London. No leaves there -- just Fools and Horses !!


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## mathepac (1 Nov 2009)

Nelson Mandela House now features a roof garden and due to (lack of) council  cut-backs the shrubbery beside the car-park is now taller than the flats. Also as NAMA now have the deeds to most of Sahrf London, rents are going to be prohibitive.


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## Complainer (1 Nov 2009)

Diziet said:


> Make leaf-mould out of them and get soil conditioner for your garden for free.


Thanks for the suggestion, but the volume is just too big. I'm collecting 2-3 full black bags each week for 2-3 months. I'd need a 2nd garden to store all these for the 2 years necessary to produce leaf mould.


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## ney001 (2 Nov 2009)

mathepac said:


> Nelson Mandela House now features a roof garden and due to (lack of) council  cut-backs the shrubbery beside the car-park is now taller than the flats. Also as NAMA now have the deeds to most of Sahrf London, rents are going to be prohibitive.



Very good, I needed a good tin bath today!


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## One (12 Nov 2009)

Hi Complainer. Were you able to resolve this? Did you approach your local council about it?


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## Complainer (12 Nov 2009)

One said:


> Hi Complainer. Were you able to resolve this? Did you approach your local council about it?


No progress, I'm afraid, and a nice layer of leaves building up this week again.


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## sam h (12 Nov 2009)

Complainer, contact your council & see if they can provide bags & a pick up location and you'll do the pick up. I don't know if they will, given that the leaves are in your garden, but it's worth a try


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## dewdrop (12 Nov 2009)

OP has a real problem and i feel some of the responses were less than helpful.


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## NHG (13 Nov 2009)

We bought a blower that also has a vaccum attachment which will chop the leaves as they go into the bag, thus making them alot smaller for compost/disposal.  The leaves would need to be fairly dry to use the vaccum more easily.  A half hour job each weekend now instead of a few hours.


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## One (13 Nov 2009)

I think that it probably worthwhile approaching the council about this. Read about the problem that this person had in the link provided. Light pollution wouldn’t bother a lot of people, and I don't think it it is a typical complaint. However it did annoy this person due to his hobby. Fair play to the council for attending to it.

[broken link removed]

I wonder if the leaves blowing into your back garden amount to a nuisance (as legally defined).


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## Tomodinhio (13 Nov 2009)

I cant see anyone in the council taking your complaint seriously, so i would suggest that every week you bring your 2-3 bags full down to the nearest park and drop them of at the depot with a note taped on explaining your situation. I wouldnt hang around to talk to anyone beacuse you'd proabably be told where to put your leaves. Or you could constantly complain to the council untill they relent and cut the trees down just so you'll leave them in peace.


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## Complainer (13 Nov 2009)

NHG said:


> We bought a blower that also has a vaccum attachment which will chop the leaves as they go into the bag, thus making them alot smaller for compost/disposal.  The leaves would need to be fairly dry to use the vaccum more easily.  A half hour job each weekend now instead of a few hours.


Thanks, but extra costs are pretty much out of the question at the minute.



Tomodinhio said:


> I cant see anyone in the council taking your complaint seriously, so i would suggest that every week you bring your 2-3 bags full down to the nearest park and drop them of at the depot with a note taped on explaining your situation. I wouldnt hang around to talk to anyone beacuse you'd proabably be told where to put your leaves. Or you could constantly complain to the council untill they relent and cut the trees down just so you'll leave them in peace.



Interesting suggestions here. Part of my quandry is that we really don't want them to cut down the trees!


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## Sue Ellen (13 Nov 2009)

Tomodinhio said:


> I cant see anyone in the council taking your complaint seriously, so i would suggest that every week you bring your 2-3 bags full down to the nearest park and drop them of at the depot with a note taped on explaining your situation. I wouldnt hang around to talk to anyone beacuse you'd proabably be told where to put your leaves. Or you could constantly complain to the council untill they relent and cut the trees down just so you'll leave them in peace.



Not a good idea, registration numbers caught on camera and all that type of stuff.


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## di74 (14 Nov 2009)

We have the same problem into our front garden. Dun Laoghaire Rathdown CC do a road sweep in our estate every few weeks. We are asked to sweep all leaves out onto the road each weekend and not to park cars on the road on the day they are coming (residents association provides dates they are due to road sweep). Maybe ring the CC and explain the problem...they may have a solution.


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## Complainer (14 Nov 2009)

di74 said:


> We have the same problem into our front garden. Dun Laoghaire Rathdown CC do a road sweep in our estate every few weeks. We are asked to sweep all leaves out onto the road each weekend and not to park cars on the road on the day they are coming (residents association provides dates they are due to road sweep). Maybe ring the CC and explain the problem...they may have a solution.


Thanks - great suggestion. Actually, I see that DLR had their sweeping schedule online up to end October www.dlrcoco.ie/roadsweeping/index.html. I'll contact them and see if they have an up-to-date version.


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## Bronco Lane (16 Nov 2009)

My neighbour has trees in his front garden that drop on to the public footpath. Every year he sweeps them on to the boundry with his neighbours house. We end up having two or three mounds of leaves about 3' tall piled up on the public footpath and completly blocking the storm drains. After a few days of wind these leaves end up down the street and become someone else's problem. 
We also are supposed to have a regular road sweeping service but this is not happening and so far this winter we have not seen sight nor light of them yet. Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Co. Co were on occasions sweeping our road twice a week during the summer. Typical.


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## runner (16 Nov 2009)

I sweep all the leaves out as well, and DLR swats them up.
Thanks for the on-line schedule Complainer.


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## Complainer (1 Dec 2009)

The official response from the council is that householders should NOT be sweeping leaves from their own gardens onto the street (for collection by the council). I'm going to try a bit more digging and haggling to see if I can get a satisfactory solution to this.


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## runner (1 Dec 2009)

Sorry, correction on above post...
I sweep only the kerb side leaves out, not the garden leaves!
By the way they did their rounds here last week as scheduled.


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## BOXtheFOX (2 Dec 2009)

Still waiting for Dun Laoghaire Rathdown to clear the mush from our footpaths and storm drains. An email to my local council official was ignored. Before the recent election she answered all emails.


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