Winterbrook House, High Street, Harwell, Didcot, OX11 0EY Data via plota.co.uk

Proposal

T1 — Robinia / false acacia (Robinia pseudoacacia) Location: Front of the property, leaning toward Harwell High street and over / immediately adjacent to the bus stop. Works: Fell to as near ground level as practicable. Grind or treat the stump. Robinia commonly suckers; monitor and remove regrowth. Reason: This is a Section 211 notification, not an imminent-danger exemption. The stem has a pronounced lean directed over the public highway and a bus stop, a high-occupancy target used daily by pedestrians standing at the stop and by passing vehicles. Robinia is a brittle-wooded species with a known tendency to sudden limb or union failure, including without a storm. T1 has already shed live branches into the carriageway. The pieces were not whole-scaffold failures, but they were large enough to cause injury or damage had they struck a car or pedestrian. A crown reduction would leave a leaning stem of this species over the same target and would be likely to produce weakly attached epicormic growth. T2 — Common ash (Fraxinus excelsior), twin-stemmed Location: Front of the property opposite side of drive to T1, approximately 12m from property Works: Fell to ground level. Grind or treat the stump. Reason: Twin-stemmed form with a weak union. A bracket fungus is fruiting on the stem at approximately 10 m above ground, consistent with decay at or above the main fork (on ash this is commonly Inonotus hispidus) Combined with the structural form, the tree is not a sound long-term component of the conservation area. T3 — Silver birch (Betula pendula) Location: between T4 and T5], planted below an overhead telephone line. Works: Fell to ground level. Reason: Poorly sited young tree. The crown is already into the telecom line and will only worsen. The tree is of limited public amenity. Removal now avoids repeated cutting of the crown against the wire. T4 and T5 — Yew (Taxus baccata), pair on the boundary Location: South boundary with Box cottage. Two trees forming a one-sided screen. Works: Fell both trees to ground level. Reason: These are no longer balanced trees. Historic one-sided cutting (‘siding up’) on the applicant’s face has stripped that side to bare stem / old stubs with no usable live crown. The remaining foliage hangs almost entirely into the neighbouring garden. The adjoining would like the remaining face back to the boundary. Doing so would remove most of the crown and leave bare stems that cannot reasonably be reshaped into trees or into a proper screen. Amenity of the conservation area is better served by removing the pair. The neighbour is aware of this notice. Data via plota.co.uk