I’m terrified my neighbour’s 60ft trees will come crashing into my house – but council are powerless to do anything
A MUM has been left terrified that her neighbour's massive 60ft trees are going to come crashing into her home.
Alison McGeachy, 51, has been locked in a decade-long row with her neighbour over the trees between their in , Renfrewshire, Scotland.
With Scotland's and high winds over the last few years, the mum-of-two is worried they might sway too much and buckle under the power of the strong winds.
The hospital cardiographer, who lives with her husband, has said she tried to reach an amicable resolution with her neighbour.
But he hasn't been seen in his property over the last 20 years and is thought to live in .
Having only spoken through letters and email, Alison has said he's refused to budge on the matter.
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She said her family didn't want the trees to be completely removed or cut down, just trimmed down and offered to pay for the work to be done.
But he hit back claiming his trees are strong Scots Pine trees and refused to take them down or trim them.
The frustrated couple had applied to Renfrewshire to have the trees lopped under high hedge legislation.
But they were left disappointed after the council reported that there wasn't anything they could do because the trees have been planted on private land.
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The complaint didn't go down well with the neighbour, who threatened to sue Alison with harassment if she took things further.
She told the Scottish Sun: "The trees are the border of our back garden, so our gardens are joined together and the trees are in the middle - but they're on his land.
"His dad planted them years and years ago. We've been in 21 years and the house has been empty that whole time.
"The first few years it didn't bother me but they've been getting bigger and one January we had really high winds and they were shaking back and forth and swaying quite bad.
"We spoke to his other neighbour who said he lived in America.
"So because we couldn't speak to him, we started writing letters, asking him just to take some of the height off the top of the trees.
"I was happy to pay for it and everything it wasn't about that.
"But he got back in touch saying that the Scots Pine trees were some of the strongest wood and things like that, and he just wouldn't budge on it over the years.
";We got in touch with the council who said it was on private land, so we got in touch with the High Hedges.
"We payed around £130 for them to come out and have a look.
"So we contacted the gentleman again and just said, you know, that this was the last chance to to come to an agreement otherwise this is what was going to happen because we reached out to the council.
"They said they would take them to the ground but we didn't want that either you know, we just wanted some height off them.
"He then got back saying he didn't want any correspondence with us anymore and anything going forward was to go through lawyers and then he going to sue us.
TREE ROW
"I contacted Citizens Advice and my local MP but it came out that he was a lawyer and so he'll know loopholes, so we never really got any help."
Alison added that she is now scared to take things further, but is getting increasingly worried as the trees continue to grow and get weaker over time.
She added: "I was scared to take it further because I didn't know what it would end up costing us.
"That was around four/five years ago and we haven't had anything since.
"They're now about 60ft high now and we've had different tree surgeons out to see them.
"They say the trees they're on wind path and they don't have meters of rots underneath them and that's why they fall so easily.
"They're slightly uphill so if they were fall they'd would fall into our land.
"The other neighbours are all complaining and asking me to take them down but I keep saying they're not my trees.
"I can't do anything about it.
"Some of of them have starting dying off so that worries me as well because they're weaker."
Renfrewshire Council have said they would be unable to comment on the matter because the trees are on private land.
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They advised that in this situation they would be unable to assist either party as it would be a private legal matter between the homeowners.
They said: "Unfortunately as the trees are on private land we would be unable to provide a comment at this time."