Business – restricted or limited public access

by | Nov 12, 2024 | Uncategorized | 0 comments

Scenario 2: Business – restricted or
limited public access

Scenario 2 relates to a mixed arable and livestock farm, with farmhouse and farm buildings, barns and yards. The land is made up of pasture and arable fields, some steep wooded ground, two small areas of managed woodland shelterbelts, plus many individual hedgerow trees, some of which are next to public paths and highways. The farm owner employs a farm manager and another permanent worker on the land, and subcontractors work at busy times.
90 ha     Approximately 7000

General information

Ownership/control of management

Responsibility: The owner of the farm has overall responsibility for managing its affairs. His farm manager reports to him and has day-to-day responsibility for organising the activities of staff and subcontractors. Part of the manager’s job description is to care for the health and safety of employees and visitors, but the owner recognises his ultimate responsibility.

Arboricultural competence: The farm owner and manager are experienced in a wide range of agricultural activities, with the manager holding a certificate of competence to use a chainsaw. Both he and the owner have a basic understanding of tree identification and can recognise tree features that might indicate structural weakness.

Access

A minor B road runs across the land, which is also bordered for half a mile by a busy A road. The tree-lined access driveway from the main public road to the farm buildings is frequently used by the owner, his family and friends, the farm’s employees and regular business visitors.

Benefits of trees

The owner takes his responsibility as a guardian of the countryside seriously. He recognises the many benefits of having trees on his land, including the sustainable supply of firewood for his household, ad hoc supply of timber for fencing and other minor construction works, as well as shelter for livestock and reduction of wind and water erosion.

The trees along the busy main road reduce the amount of noise from traffic, and those along the driveway provide an attractive, shaded approach to his home. He is also aware that the trees enhance the capital value of his farm.

Natural living organisms

The owner has lived on the farm all his life and has witnessed the growth and decay of trees here and elsewhere. One of the veteran oaks in the pasture is completely hollow. He has seen mature trees suffering storm-damaged, broken branches and has observed the subsequent regrowth without the need for any intervention.

He also managed the situation after one of the avenue trees had fallen across the drive during a stormy night.

Strategy

Management
All farm staff are instructed to look out for any signs of tree problems anywhere on the farm and report them to the manager. He has made it clear he wants to know immediately of any serious, obvious problems such as a tree that appears unstable. In the past this has highlighted a tree with its root plate lifting and another near the road with a large branch that was badly split.

The manager arranged for the first to be felled and the second to have the branch cut back. The manager undertook the first formal inspection of the trees alongside the two roads. He found three trees that he had serious concerns about but which he wanted to keep, as they are large mature trees that provide visual screening and reduce noise and pollution to the farmhouse.

He arranged for a qualified arboriculturist to have a look at them to advise as to what, if any, work was required to manage the risk of failure. Having completed this initial inspection and arranged for the required remedial work to be carried out, unless there is a change in circumstances, the farm manager has arranged that the trees in these areas will be subject to the same informal inspection regime as the other trees on the farm, and has planned further formal inspection of the roadside trees for three years’ time.

If they detect anything unusual about them, such as an obvious defect that causes safety concern, they call a local tree surgeon, who can tell if any remedial work needs to be done.

Competence

The farm staff’s general working knowledge is considered adequate for identifying any areas of significant concern. However, if the manager is uncertain about how best to deal with any of the trees on the property, he calls in a qualified arboriculturist.

Records

The results of the manager’s formal inspection of the roadside areas are kept in a file in the farm office along with the results of the arboriculturist’s survey and a note of the remedial work carried out. As part of the informal survey regime, the manager keeps a note of any trees reported to him by the public or other farm staff and records his response to those reports in the file in the farm office.

Evaluation

These records are considered important in that, in the unusual circumstance where he might have to show a reasonable system exists, he can demonstrate ‘the conduct to be expected from a reasonable and prudent landowner’.

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