Teacher claims his house’s foundations are under threat after trees from next door TESCO invaded his property
Supermarket is lined by row of 25ft trees and their roots have crept under fence
A TEACHER reckons the foundations to his home are under threat from the giant roots of trees in a neighbouring Tesco store.
Damian Bell’s garden backs onto the supermarket which is lined by 25 foot trees and the 44-year-old claims the roots are creeping under his fence.
Damian’s suspicions were first raised when nothing would grow in his back yard in Edenthorpe, South Yorkshire.
The roots – which are sucking the ground dry – are too large to remove without destroying his lawn and Damian is worried they will damage the foundations of his home and conservatory.
Since then he says he has been embroiled in a row with the supermarket giant and complained to the store manager once a month since last July,the reports.
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He said: “It’s causing all sorts of problems and damage for me. Nothing at all will grow - nothing can compete with giant tree roots.
“The grass is a mess from all the roots. The lawn is ruined. It’s an absolute joke. It’s very frustrating. My neighbours are having problems too.
“Their patio is breaking up from the roots burrowing underneath. I’ve tried using the garden - I would love to have flowers and plants growing there.
“I have tried, but everything just dies. The trees were probably planted with good intentions to give the locals privacy in their gardens.
“But they have now got out of control. It was bugging me for a number of years as nothing would grow.
“But it was last July when I discovered this big, thick root coming out of the lawn and followed it, where it disappeared back underground and went into next door’s garden too.
“I thought ‘that’s a tree trunk’, it’s huge. I showed it to my dad as he knows a bit about gardening and he said I should alert Tesco as the roots were heading towards the house and could damage the foundations or the conservatory.”
Mr Bell reckons someone from Tescos’ estates team to come to view the problem but since then ‘every contact has been him chasing them’.
Damian added: “‘It’s the house and conservatory that I’m really worried about - they are so big they could cause serious damage to the structure of the house.
"Since Tesco were doing nothing I eventually complained on social media about a month ago and then the manager called me back that day.
"They obviously didn’t like that. They promised me that they would come in August this year and would cut the trees back.
"I explained yet again that this wouldn’t help anything as it was the roots underneath. They said they would sort that but they never came.
"They lied about that so I had then had enough. That made me angry. When I had some free time I dug up one of these huge roots."
A Tesco spokesman said: "We would like to apologise to Mr Bell for the length of time it has taken to respond to his enquiry.
"We have consulted our tree specialist and we will be carrying out work over the next few weeks to cut back and remove some of the trees.
"We will also be in contact with Mr Bell to arrange a meeting to discuss his concerns."
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