Thatcham Town Cricket Club - Tree Policy

THATCHAM TOWN CRICKET CLUB

POLICY ON TREE MAINTENANCE AND PROTECTION

PURPOSE

Thatcham Town Cricket Club acknowledges and understands its responsibility to maintain and protect trees that adorn Browns Sports Field, Brownsfield Road. The purpose of this policy document is to describe what the Club are doing to achieve this so that club members, local residents and its landlordThatcham Town Council, amongst others, are clear on how the Club will respond to matters arising with the trees.

BACKGROUND

Thatcham Town Council, who own the land on which the cricket club is situated, have a tree policy that states:

Thatcham Town Council understands its responsibility to keep its trees in a healthy and safe condition so that they do not cause any legal nuisance. In this respect, Thatcham Town Council understands it has an obligation to inspect its trees and to ensure work is carried out to abate legal nuisance.

Thatcham Town Council appreciates the considerable benefits of having trees and understands that trees can enhance a person’s quality of life and form an integral part of an urban environment’s shape, colour and diversity.

In keeping with its Environmental Strategy, Thatcham Town Council recognises that trees can help reduce air pollution and can help to combat the effects of global warming by providing shade from the sun, reducing wind speeds and reducing extremes of temperature. Trees also offer valuable support to a range of wildlife by providing food, shelter, nesting and roosting sites.

Thatcham Town Council has no legal obligation to prune a tree for the benefit of its neighbour’s level of light. A person’s tolerance of shade or their need for light, both daylight and direct sunlight, is a subjective and personal matter. However, Thatcham Town Council does understand that at times a flexible approach is required when dealing with complaints about its trees and will always give further consideration if the effects of the trees are considered to be affecting the quality of life of the complainant.

Trees add dimensions of height, shape and colour to an area in a way that nothing else can.

In addition West Berks Council have published the following document on trees WBC Trees Frequently Asked Questions.pdf

 

IMPLEMENTATION

The Club recognises its role in the community with regards to the trees on its ground and is adopting the same approach as Thatcham Town Council regarding the health and safety of these trees. We achieve this by following these guidelines:

  • The club has no legal obligation to prune a tree for the benefit of its neighbour’s level of light. However, the Club does understand that at times a flexible approach is required when dealing with complaints about its trees and will always give further consideration if the effects of the trees are considered to be affecting the quality of life of the complainant.

  • The Club regularly monitors the state of the trees within the ground and will take all action necessary to avoid a legal nuisance.

  • The Club will consider other requests from club members and local residents (for additional tree maintenance) sympathetically. If it was agreed that further tree maintenance would be desirable, the Club would work with interested parties to identify potential funding avenues to pay for the work to be done.

  • All trees within the ground are numbered and tagged, with their condition and proposed management recorded in the Tree Survey Schedule.  The Schedule is regularly updated and is available on request from the Club.

     

     

    POLICY REVIEW

    The Management Committee of the Club forwarded this version of the policy to Thatcham Town Council for their information and feedback on 11th January 2016,
    It was placed on the Club’s website April 2016.

    This policy was reviewed in January 2018 and remained unchanged. It will be reviewed every 2 years.