Disclosure Log
Freedom of Information request - General Statistics on Vegetation Blocking Footways (FOI/5325)
Message from Nottinghamshire County Council - 17 March 2025
Dear Requester,
Request FOI/5325
Further to your request received I confirm that the Council has now considered your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Reports of Obstruction from Private Land:
1. How many reports or complaints regarding overgrown vegetation and foliage obstructing footways, originating from private land were received by your authority in the past two years (2023 and 2024) – We are unable to answer this question as information isn’t recorded on vegetation affecting only footways, we can only provide information affecting the highway which could be verge/carriageway/footway. We also do not have a specific attribute on our system to identify whether an issue originated from private land, this would require us to manually check through over 5000 enquiries from this date range, which at approx. 2 minutes per enquiry would take roughly 166 hours to assess, taking over the 18-hour limit.
Reports of Obstruction from Public Land:
2. How many reports or complaints regarding overgrown vegetation and foliage obstructing footways originating from public land were received by your authority in the same period We are unable to answer this question as information isn’t recorded on vegetation affecting only footways, we can only provide information affecting the highway which could be verge/carriageway/footway. We also do not have a specific attribute on our system to identify whether an issue originated from public land (also we only deal with the publicly maintained highway and ‘public land’ could be classed as non-highway NCC owned land or land owned by district/parish councils. This would require us to manually check through over 5000 enquiries from this date range, which at approx. 2 minutes per enquiry would take roughly 166 hours to assess, taking over the 18-hour limit.
From 01/04/23 – 31/12/24 we received 2611 customer enquiries with the subject ‘Overhanging vegetation’ & 2469 reports with the subject ‘Trees/Forestry’, overgrown vegetation can be on either of these subjects as members of the public often don’t distinguish what they are reporting. We can only provide this information since 01/04/23 when we began using a new asset management system as information wasn’t recorded in the same way previously.
Actions Taken by the Authority
Enforcement or Intervention on Private Land:
3. For reports concerning overhanging vegetation and foliage from private land, how many led to:
• The landowner being contacted – We’re unable to provide this information as it would take approx. 166 hours to check over 5000 individual reports as there is no attribute on customer reports to see if a landowner was contacted, it would need each report manually checking to see if correspondence has been stored.
• Formal enforcement action – The authority has issued the following since May 2023
- 20 x Section 154 Notices - May’2023 to March’2024
- 311 x Section 154 Notices - April’2024 to February’2025
• Direct intervention by the authority to remove or address the vegetation – 117 jobs completed.
• Penalty fines issued – We do not issue penalty fines .
Length of time for action to be taken
4. On average, how long did each report take to action, from the moment the complaint was received, to the point which the issue was dealt with – We’re unable to provide the information due to the comments related to Q1/Q2,
5. What is the usual timeframe you state you will deal with overgrown vegetation and foliage in
If upon inspection the vegetation is highways maintained, it would be dealt with by our forestry team as per the time frames stated in the Highway Network Management Plan / Highway Inspection & Risk Manual which can be found here - Highway policy and strategy documents | Nottinghamshire County Council,
if upon inspection the vegetation is from private land -
- We will inspect within 10 working days after a report is received
- If the vegetation originates from private land, we will need to investigate the landowner and make contact, this time is variable as sometimes if can take longer to establish ownership and make contact.
- Once ownership is confirmed, a letter will be sent requesting the vegetation is removed within 14 days.
- Another inspection is carried out after 14 days to check if the vegetation has been removed. If it has, the report is resolved.
- If no work has been carried out, a 2nd letter is sent including an NCC enforcement notice giving the owner another 14 days to remove the vegetation or warning we will do it on their behalf and seek to recover costs.
- Another inspection is carried out after 14 days to check if vegetation has been removed. If it has, the report is resolved.
- If the vegetation still hasn’t been removed, our forestry team will carry out the work and look to recover our costs from the landowner.
Maintenance of Public Land:
6. What actions were undertaken to address complaints about overgrown vegetation and foliage obstructing footways on public land Please provide details of:
• The number of cases resolved per year (2023 and 2024). – As per Q1/Q2 we’re unable to provide this for just footways
• The nature of the interventions (e.g., pruning, clearing, etc.). – If we are required to intervene, we often carry out siding up work, pruning or clearing. This is site specific dependant on the location, the type of vegetation and the extent of the overhang on to the highway.
Best Practices and Guidance–
Policies or Guidance on Overhanging Vegetation:
7. Does your authority have any specific policies, procedures, or guidance documents on preventing or addressing overgrown vegetation and foliage obstructing footways If so, please provide copies or links to these documents, ensuring they are in an accessible format for blind and partially sighted people They can be found here - Highway policy and strategy documents | Nottinghamshire County Council
Examples of Good Practice:
8. Can you provide examples of good practice adopted by your authority to effectively manage overhanging vegetation and foliage issues (e.g., community engagement, educational campaigns, partnerships with landowners, or consultation with disability groups) No Information held
Coordination with Other Authorities:
9. Has your authority worked with neighbouring councils or external organizations to share resources or best practices for tackling overhanging vegetation If so, please provide details.. No Information held
Accessible reporting
10. What is the process of reporting overgrown vegetation and foliage, how many steps are there, and how accessible/easy to find are these processes on your website (By accessible, we mean how easy is it for a blind or partially sighted person using assistive technology or person with low vision, to access and report it Any form of highways issue can be reported through our call centre, the MyNotts app or our website. The council is undertaking a review of its web site content to make sure it meets the Web Site Accessibility requirements including making information of sufficient quality, to enable them to be compatible with browsers for partially sighted people
11. How many reports of overgrown vegetation and foliage did you receive from blind and partially sighted people did you receive in the past two years This information isn’t recorded at a level where it can be searched, it would require manually checking over 5000 reports as above, this would take over 116 hours.
Spending and Budget Allocation –
Expenditure on Addressing Vegetation Issues:
12. What was the total expenditure allocated and spent by the authority on tackling overhanging vegetation and foliage affecting footways during the past two years Please break down this spending by:
• Addressing vegetation from public land. –
• Addressing vegetation from private land (including enforcement and direct intervention costs).
We do not have a specific budget to deal with overhanging vegetation. If the issue was caused by a highways-maintained tree/hedge, any maintenance would be charged to the wider budget for forestry maintenance.
No budget is allocated to dealing with issues originating from private land. We will attempt to recover costs from landowners if we do need to carry out work on their behalf.
Additional Budget for Vegetation Management:
13. Has your authority allocated any specific budget or additional funding (e.g., grants, subsidies) to manage overhanging vegetation and foliage If so, please provide details of the amounts and their use. –
Works are carried out from main forestry maintenance budget.
We hope you find this information useful.
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Yours sincerely
Freedom of Information
Complaints and Information Team
Chief Executives Department
Nottinghamshire County Council
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