Table Item Number

Ivydene Gardens Home:
Neighbour Problems - by our neighbours of 2 Eastmoor Farm Cottages
F1 - Drowning our trees with their raw sewage; with the Local Authority stating that this is a civil matter on a Listed Building under their jurisdiction.
F2 - Unauthorised tree branch cutting
F3 - Drowning roots of Prunus avium and Laurus nobilis trees in 1 Eastmoor Farm Cottages's gardens, that require well-drained soil, will kill those trees and greatly weaken the grip
that those tree roots have in the soil. Using brick sealer will seal the roots and kill them.

These 2 are in the next table.
F4 - Police Treat Movement of Boundary Items as Civil Matter
F5 - It can be very difficult for van drivers to find a required address for delivery.

F1

F1 - Drowning our trees with their raw sewage; with the Local Authority stating that this is a civil matter on a Listed Building under their jurisdiction.

On 22 April 2024, my wife informed 2 Eastmoor Farm Cottages that the septic tank was full, and it is still full on 28 April 2024. Having continued to offload their 8064 litres of sewage into our
garden, then the water table has reached the surface and is drowning our trees. Using brick sealer will seal the roots and kill the trees in our hedges by our drive and vegetable garden with
its consequences in Useful Data Gallery.
Ignoring this; 2 Eastmoor Farm Cottages are still using their toilet etc. The drain junction outside our kitchen is leaking their sewage onto our land of 1 Eastmoor Farm Cottages from
23 April 2024; for the third separate occasion. If they are using the average of 144 litres of mains water per day per person, then they are dumping 1152 litres onto our garden; per day.
The sewage/waste rate is 100 litres per day for 1 Eastmoor Farm Cottages; as stated on our Southern Water bill for incoming mains water.
The cesspit was emptied on 29 April 2024. It could not be emptied on 27 April due to all the local depots to take liquid Tanker Waste, being inoperable, due to Water Board not doing its maintenance.
It is good to know that if you have a family from the UK, that to obtain your property, they can cut the trees that drain that sewage; and then put down almost the total cesspit capacity
of sewage to end up in your garden, per day.
The police and Medway Local Authority say that this is a civil matter on what happens to Grade 2 Listed Property.
Scaffolding erected - on 24 April 2024 outside our kitchen of 1 Eastmoor Farm Cottages - may prevent the daily 1152 litres of sewage from 2 Eastmoor Farm Cottages causing these
semi-detached 600 year old properties from subsiding. The waste water from our kitchen comes from the sink and the dishwasher only to this drain junction to join the sewage and
waste water from the residents of 2 Eastmoor Farm Cottages.

On Thursday 29 August 2024, the septic tank was emptied. On Sunday 8 September 2024 the drain junction outside our kitchen is again leaking sewage onto our land for the
fourth separate occasion, but the local authority is not interested, stating that that is a civil matter. When you buy a property in the UK, then your neighbours can offload their
sewage onto your property with impunity.
 

To empty a small septic tank in 2022 once was £175. If they do not pay at all for that operation, then that will cost more than £63,875 per year if we Old Age Pensioners pay for it to
be emptied each day, or 547 cubic metres of combined sewage and waste water will soak our ground and the 600 year old brick walls of our house. This will
require 37 standard size Vacuum Tankers of 3000 gallons capacity per year to empty 2 Eastmoor Farm Cottages waste.
Kent Waste came to 1 Eastmoor Farm Cottages at 10:00am on Friday 26 April 2024 by request from 2 Eastmoor Farm Cottages. They went away without emptying the cesspit or ringing
the doorbell of 1 Eastmoor Farm Cottages for the iron sidegate to be unlocked.
Looking at my Moor Street Conservation Area plan, new houses have been approved in the field from house number 5 to traffic lights by 1. Besides the new built school, more houses
have been approved to occupy the rest of that field from 1 to 27 to the railway line. New houses are being built occupying the rest of that field from 28 to the railway line and down
to the A2. New pumped drains were fitted in the road from 27 to the A2 and up to 10 for the new school. This will add to Southern Water's spills as shown in TABLE WASTE OF TIME in
Row 8 of the last table on the right.

F2

F2 - Unauthorised tree branch cutting by our neighbours of 2 Eastmoor Farm Cottages

Medway Conservation Officer with the Medway Tree Officer did not give 211 permission to 2 Eastmoor Farm Cottages to cut off one of the 12 inches diameter (30cm) branches from
one of the wild cherry trees in the hedge belonging to 1 Eastmoor Farm Cottages in April 2024, without consulting the owners of it in 1 Eastmoor Farm Cottages, Moor Street, Rainham, Kent.

• Perhaps Medway did not realise that that branch was supporting another 40 feet (1200cm) high tree in the vegetable garden hedge, which is now unsupported. This statement written on
  7 April 2024. I emailed the above to planning.representations@Medway.gov.uk at 04:35 on Tuesday 9 April 2024. I received an automated response the following day, and this
  section in an email from Daniel Foster, Open Digital Planning Support Officer, Planning Department on 18th April 2024 (full email version on About Chris Garnons-Williams page)
  - "The alleged removal of a branch without the tree owners consent is a civil matter between the two parties, as is any resultant impact on the structural integrity of the tree in
  terms of how it alters the safe use of the property at 1 Eastmoor Farm Cottages, also is the conversion of timber to be used as firewood by someone other than the tree owner. "
  In other words anybody can cut down your trees in a Conservation Area or anywhere else; and you the owner have to use a civil action to do something about it. So, my
  neighbours can cut down my trees, having cut off the overhanging branches on their side, with impunity.
• I was under the impression that if you cut off parts of a tree that you returned the cut parts to the owner, not store it in the open garage of 2 Eastmoor Farm Cottages and
  cut it up for firewood for 2 Eastmoor Farm Cottages, but according to Medway Council, the perpetrators can cut down your trees and take them away as firewood for their own
  use or sell it.
• A minor point to remember is the penalties from Tree Preservation Orders: A guide to the Law and Good Practice from Medway Council, that if you the owner do not get
  planning permission in a conservation area to cut off a leaf, you can be fined £2,500, but your next door neighbour can cut off your branches with impunity without getting
  approval. The link to those penalties is no longer operative, but you can read them on the Site Map of Evergreen Trees.
• On 15th April 2024; 1 of our three 40 feet high birch trees blew down.
• The following is from The Pruning of Trees, Shrubs and Conifers by George E. Brown -
  Maintaining Balance in a clump or group of trees. "A balanced and unbroken outline is desirable with a clump or group of trees as a whole. It is for this reason that there
  should be a reluctance to remove any one which will leave a gap in the outer 'skin' of foliage and branches. This would let the wind into specimens which as separate individuals
  may lack balance to such an extent that they would not be capable of standing up even in a moderate wind. A community of trees with a given area has grown up under a certain
  set of conditions, with the growth and shape conforming to the general pattern of the forces which normally prevail. The removal of one or more of the trees or a building, or,
  alternatively, the erection of any form of structure, particularly a large and solid one, may seriously alter these conditions".
  A windbreak reduces wind on its leeward side to a distance of 10 times its height.
• Because our neighbours have also cut down shrubs/trees forming part of this 'skin' in their adjoining gardens (with permission from the Medway Conservation Officer and the
  Meday Tree Officer?), that tree fell down in the standard wind direction from those neighbouring gardens. It will probably be succeeded by our 2 other birch trees and a bay tree,
  which take the remainder of the sewage water overflow.
• These trees were being used to take the overflow from our pit and when the previous owners of 2 Eastmoor Farm Cottages were only 2 people between 1984 and 2020, then
  we only had to empty that pit once a year. When mother, father, 3 children with their partners (including a drain engineer and a tree surgeon) moved in to 2 Eastmoor Farm
  Cottages, that meant there are 10 people using between 122 and 144 litres of water a day. The pit contains 1500 litres. 2 Eastmoor Farm Cottages recognized the problem
  and now pay for the majority of its being emptied. With this tree coming down, then less sewage water will be absorbed each day. When the sewage drainpipe gets blocked in
  the garden of 1 Eastmoor Farm Cottages, we write a letter to 2 Eastmoor Farm Cottages requesting them not to use their bath, shower, toilet or kitchen sink, which because
  they are illiterate (I believe their daughter is an airline steward), they fail to do each time. That sewage pipe is going to get more blocked with the loss of trees absorbing
  the sewage water.
• This community of trees includes our hedges in the drive and vegetable garden. Now more of them are going to be blown down from those hedges of 1 Eastmoor Farm Cottages
  onto the vehicles which they use to create a mudbath by spinning the wheels of their commercial vehicles and cars, belonging to 2 Eastmoor Farm Cottages, since they moved in.
  Roots of trees are not very deep. The 15 feet high laurel hedge bounding next door's garden was 50% trimmed down in height on 20 April 2024. The wind flows from that
  cutdown laurel hedge across a garden; to back garden of 2 Eastmoor Farm Cottages, and then to our bay tree.
• The insurance companies of the buildings, commercial and private vehicles will not be amused by claims from 2 Eastmoor Farm Cottages, when due to tree-cutting exercises
  by 2 Eastmoor Farm Cottages to neighbouring gardens - with the destruction of tree roots of trees owned by 1 Eastmoor Farm Cottages; that those trees damage the vehicles
  and property of 2 Eastmoor Farm Cottages. The insurers for 1 Eastmoor Farm Cottages will know who to attach the blame to and which of the insurance companies for
  2 Eastmoor Farm Cottages to get recompense from.
• When we complained to the police about the residents of 2 Eastmoor Farm Cottages stealing our boundary, they informed us that it was a civil not a police matter. If someone
  has taken metal structures from someone else's property that is theft and they are still visible on their property on 19 April 2024.

On 19th April 2024, that blown down tree was cut up by a commercial firm of tree surgeons. It was found that the centre of the trunk by the roots was rotten, whereas above and below
were not rotten. That means, that the other 2 birch trees and the bay tree - also planted at the same time 36 years ago - will need to be reduced by at least 30% (the commercial firm of
tree surgeons recommended that the birch trees be felled, but they did not think that Medway Council would approve that. They think that they should get permission for reduction within
6 weeks and 6 weeks later carry out the work. Last time we recently applied to the council, it took 6 months and thousands of pounds on plan revisions/consultations before Conservation
Area approval. Reduction of the trees means further Medway Council permission for each time of regular tree reduction work every 3-5 years.
One of those birch trees will fall on our garage, unless surgery is done to it before wind gusts fell it.
This will leave insufficient foliage to take the 8 people and us 2, and mean that the pit will need to be emptied at least every day and more often when next door has a party of 15 at
weekends. The hefty non-rotten roots were pulled out by that commercial firm using one of their staff operating their mechanical metal winch with its breaking strain of its 40 ton belt.
The roots they took away were twice the volume of the cut trunk.

Copy of email sent to me by the Planning Department of Medway Council.

Unauthorised works on tree(s) - Eastmoor Cottages

From planningtrees on 2024-04-18 13:03

Details Headers Plain text

Dear Mr C. Garnons-Williams,

I wanted to thank you for your enquiry and apologise for any delay in responding. We have checked and cannot find any record of a 211 notice having been submitted,
or of any record relating to notice of exempt works at 1 or 2 Eastmoor Farm Cottages. We have not given any form of consent for work on the tree(s)

To help us with our enquiries it would be appreciated if you could provide a few more details. For example:

•           A sketch or plan showing where the tree grows.

•           Some images showing the pruning that has been undertaken.

The alleged removal of a branch without the tree owners consent is a civil matter between the two parties, as is:

•           any resultant impact on the structural integrity of the tree in terms of how it alters the safe use of the property at 1 Eastmoor Farm Cottages.

•           The conversion of timber to be used as firewood by someone other than the tree owner. 

We will open a case file for unauthorised works to the tree(s) as they would have needed permission from the LPA to do any works other then removal of
deadwood which does not require consent but from what you’ve said it appears more then deadwood has been removed

Kind Regards,

Daniel Foster | Open Digital Planning Support Officer | Planning Department
Medway Council | Gun Wharf, Dock Road, Chatham, ME4 4TR |
Phone: 01634 331700 Email: planningtrees@medway.gov.uk
Web: medway.gov.uk |Twitter/X: @medway_council | Facebook: Medway Council

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Is there much point in replying, when the trunks on the laurel hedge were wider than 7.5-10.0 cms at 150cms from the ground, without a 211 notice before cutting them;
in their other neighbours garden of 2 Eastmoor Farm Cottages?
 

Copy of .pdf sent to me within an email on 2 May 2024.

Please ask for: Michael Sankus
Tel: 01634 332218
Our Ref: ENF/24/0081 Email: michael.sankus@medway.gov.uk
Date: 2 May 2024
Sir/Madam
Planning Service Culture And Community Regeneration, Culture & Environment Transformation Gun Wharf Dock Road Chatham Kent ME4 4TR 01634 331700 planning.enforcement@medway.gov.uk
Dear Sir/Madam
Location: 1 Eastmoor Farm Cottages, Moor Street, Rainham Gillingham
Breach: Without the benefit of permission, the pruning of a protected tree
I refer to your enquiry of about the subject matter and write to advise you that an enforcement investigation has been logged.
A site inspection will be undertaken in the near future, which will enable an assessment of what action, if any is required.
I will endeavour to keep you informed and will let you know the outcome of my findings in due course.
The Council politely asks that customers are patient in terms of the timescale for officers dealing with reported breaches as we work t hrough a hi gh v olume of both existing and new cases.
In most circumstances we will not be i n position to provide an accurate timescale on the progress of each case.
If you require any further assistance, please contact planning.enforcement@medway.gov.uk.
Yours sincerely
Michael Sankus
Senior Tree Officer

F3

F3 - Drowning roots of Prunus avium and Laurus nobilis trees in 1 Eastmoor Farm Cottages's gardens, that require well-drained soil, will kill those trees and greatly weaken the grip
that those tree roots have in the soil. Using brick sealer will seal the roots and kill them.

I was wondering why on Friday evening 26th April 2024, the trade vehicles and private cars were missing from the mudpatch area used by the residents of 2 Eastmoor Farm Cottages
and on Monday, that those vehicles have not returned. During the night from Saturday to Sunday; it rained. A lake appeared on that mudpatch by our hedges - next to our hedge
by the vegetable garden and our hedge alongside the drive, which is still there 48 hours later. After that dry weather during those 48 hours to Tuesday morning, the front drive tarmac
dried off on Sunday. So the soil from their mudpatch to the other side of our back garden is saturated and the water table has risen to the ground level. The back garden is due to the
sewage from the drain to the cesspit; the lake on the mudpatch is not due to rain when you have more than 6 of 40 feet high trees in spring leaf alongside it; which should have
absorbed that water during that time. Since that mudpatch was all level last Tuesday, then if you rake off the soil and put water to saturate the ground and create a lake, then the
soil round the roots is saturated and will not hold those roots. Oh dear; if a lorry happened to reverse into those trees, when that lorry returns from work and has to be turned round
so it is easier to drive out in the following morning, they will fall away from that push into our garage. To protect the CCTV electrics, then that can be removed from the damaged garage
and the evidence that these trees were pushed destroyed.
That lake is still there at 04:16 in the morning of Tuesday 30 April 2024. The earth is on sandstone, so 1 Eastmoor Farm Cottages has never had a lake since we moved in in 1986 - even
after the storm of 1987. There is no lake the other side of the hedge in our drive and no lake in the back garden of 2 Eastmoor Farm Cottages. For the lake to be there, then the washing
of a vehicle in that future lake area by 2 Eastmoor Farm Cottages residents must have released a liquid that combines with the earth to make it impermeable to water (Our brick sealers
will provide a highly effective barrier or the prevention of damp on brick walls. The sealers for brickwork can be applied by sprayer or roller and once dry will prevent water penetration
into previously porous brickwork. Our bricksealers are odour free non-solvents as well as being eco-friendly). There is no way that water can be sitting there with tree roots under
it on sandstone. So, if you prevent the roots from taking up water or any gaseous exchange then those tree roots will die. And that would explain why the vehicles normally in that
mudpatch are no longer there. If this is true, then the trees in the hedge by our drive and by the vegetable garden will fall down into 1 Eastmoor Farm Cottages property.

Amaxing increase in size of lake on a dry day that I saw at 06:52 on Tuesday 30 April 2024 from when I saw it at at 04:16 earlier in the night.

2 Eastmoor Farm Cottages have continued to dump their total of 8064 litres of sewage so far into the drain to our cesspit since Monday. That volume of liquid has brought the water
table to the ground surface for our trees in the Back Garden. I think it is a different cause for the lake appearing in the morning of Sunday 28th April 2024; beside the hedges for our
drive and vegetable garden. With 3 more days of dumping by Wednesday, they will have dumped the equivalent of a full Vacuum Tanker of 3000 gallons on our back garden and we
do not know how much on their mudpatch. The cesspit was emptied on Monday 29 April 2024 and that was paid for by the residents of 2 Eastmoor Farm Cottages.

From Second Edition Arboriculture integrated managemt of landscape trees, shrubs and vines by richard w. Harris - Professor Emeritus of Department of Environmental Horticulture,
Uinversity of California. ISBN 0-13-044280-1
Page 365
"Aeration/Drainage
Aeration of soil is closely related to the adequacy of its drainage. If a soil is well drained, it is usually well aerated; if a soil has poor drainage, it is poorly aerated. A continuous,
adequate supply of oxygen is required for roots to supply plants with sufficient water, nutrients, and certain hormones. All too often compacted soil, fine-textured soil, surface
crusting, pavement, flooding, or a high water table interfere with gas exchange between the soil and air".

So the residents of 2 Eastmoor Farm Cottages is giving 1 Eastmoor Farm Cottages a choice.

• If we do nothing, then those trees requiring a well-drained soil in the back garden, drive and vegetable garden will die and fall down,
• If we pay to have the cesspit emptied, then they will not pay in the future, so we face the costs of having a tanker every day to empty their waste.
• Production of a lake within their mudpatch can still drown the roots of our 2 hedges, as well as the saturated soil will not prevent those roots from sliding away from a force
  applied to them either by a vehicle pushing the trunk or the swaying trunk in a wind exerting a pulling force on those roots.
• Whichever way, we the residents of 1 Eastmoor Farm Cottages, lose.
  Our trees could fall on our house, our garage and onto the mudpatch of 2 Eastmoor Farm Cottages. If they fall, then their protection of reducing the wind strength over a
  distance of 10 times their height; will affect the trees in the wind direction following to our neighbour's garden together with their house and outbuildings.

I have copied this from the Home Page:-
"On 19th April 2024, that blown down tree was cut up by a commercial firm of tree surgeons. It was found that the centre of the trunk by the roots was rotten, whereas above and
below were not rotten. That means, that the other 2 birch trees and the bay tree - also planted at the same time 36 years ago - will need to be reduced by at least 30%
(the commercial firm of tree surgeons recommended that the birch trees be felled, but they did not think that Medway Council would approve that. They think that they should
get permission for reduction within 6 weeks and 6 weeks later carry out the work. Last time we recently applied to the council, it took 6 months and thousands of pounds
on 'preplanning' and 'post-acceptance of the plan to enter the planning approval process' for plan revisions/consultations before Conservation Area approval. Reduction of the
trees means further Medway Council permission for each time of regular tree reduction work every 3-5 years).
One of those birch trees will fall on our garage, unless surgery is done to it before wind gusts fell it.
This will leave insufficient foliage to take the 8 people and us 2, and mean that the pit will need to be emptied at least every day and more often when next door has a party of
15 at weekends. The hefty non-rotten roots were pulled out by that commercial firm using one of their staff operating their mechanical metal winch with its breaking strain of
its 40 ton belt. The roots they took away were twice the volume of the cut trunk"

Since those roots were less than 12 inches (30cms) from ground level, then if you have a lake you can easily get to the same depth of root in the mudpatch of 2 Eastmoor Farm
Cottages for our hedge trees by our drive and vegetable garden. Oh dear, those roots cannot compete with spinning lorry wheels, what a shame! Houses 13, 14 and 16 are in
the centre of Moor Street Conservation Area as shown on my map in Contact Chris Garnons-Williams Page. If plans were made to build houses on the farmland behind them to
complete the building on the land controlled by Medway Council round this Conservation Area, they would need access to the A2.
The new homes being built in the remainder of the field - to the right of house 28 and down the map and across to the left to get to the A2 - is controlled by Swale Borough
Council as is the new housing estate built in the field on the north side of the railway line - opposite the new school on the south side in Medway.