Dangerous trees

All landowners have a legal duty to ensure their trees do not pose an unreasonable risk to other people or property, on or next to their land. 

Trees must be regularly inspected and where unreasonable risks to people or property exist, works should be carried out to remove or reduce the risk.

Council Owned Trees

We aim to carry out surveys of our sites containing trees to identify risks in our tree stock. However some hazards can occur between surveys and we welcome any help identifying these.

Trees in parks

If a tree in a park or open space owned or managed by SMDC is in a dangerous condition contact us.

However a tree would not be considered dangerous simply because of its size or location. It is the tree's condition and health that determine its danger.

If you need to speak with someone urgently or you are contacting us outside of our usual office opening hours please call  0345 605 3010  and you will be put through to our emergency out of hours team.

Highways trees

Dangerous street and highway trees growing in pavements or from public highway verges need to be notified to Staffordshire County Council Highways using their Report It form or by calling 0300 111 8000.

If the tree is on private land and either obstructing a road or footpath or is in a dangerous state that poses a risk to the highway, you should again report this to Staffordshire County Council Highways using their Report It form or call 0300 111 8000

Landowners

If you own trees and are worried about their safety the  landowners guide to tree safety (PDF, 3 MB) will help you decide if a tree is dangerous.  

Contact the Arboricultural Association to find a qualified professional if you are not sure.

Third Party Trees

If you think a tree growing on someone else's property is dangerous you should always speak to the landowner before contacting us. The legal responsibility for managing trees always lies with the landowner. 

If you're unhappy with the landowner's response and you have made efforts to resolve the matter with them, or think the tree is an imminent serious hazard, then Contact us.

We may be able to ask the owner of the tree to carry out any work to the tree under the Miscellaneous Provisions Act (1976). This will depend on the circumstances, and we can only do this if the tree is imminently dangerous.

We have no power to deal with trees causing a general nuisance such as shading or leaf fall except for evergreen hedges