There is no such thing as the right to a view

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In UK law there is no such thing as the right to a view, which seems a shame sometimes but is just as well otherwise nothing would ever get done! At the back of my parents’ house there is a row of beech trees, which I planted myself with my Mum about 35 years ago when they were about 4 inches tall. Since then a lot has changed. The field that was beyond the trees was developed about 10 years ago and there are now about 25 houses built there. At that time my Mum bought the strip of land immediately behind her house for a bit of extra privacy, then beyond that there is a public footpath and beyond that the backs of the new houses. So now there is a row of 5 beech trees about 30 feet tall and on the other side of that a strip of land which is always in shade and looks like a sort of no-man’s land because the trees look as though they mark the boundary (which they did originally). The trees are also far too close together, they would have been fine as a hedge but now they are tall and rather spindly, and most are lop-sided as they compete with their neighbours making them vulnerable in high winds (and this is a very windy spot), so reluctantly we decided they have to go. Over two days last week a team of tree surgeons was working away at getting them down. The first day went without a hitch, but somewhat predictably work was just starting on the second morning when a young woman still in her pyjamas came round from one of the new houses to ask if we couldn’t save the trees as removing them would spoil her view. I agreed it was a shame, but they were too tall and in the wrong place and there are still many other trees around, and I plan to plant a new hedge along the fence at the back. She still pleaded if we could not just trim them a bit so she wouldn’t have to see the road (which is of course what we see from the front of the house) because that would be so much worse than the pretty trees. I told her that I had planted and watched the trees grow from seedlings myself, but explained that nevertheless for various reasons they just had to go. She kept going on about the view so I told her that I had originally been able to look out of the back of the house at a view over fields, and now I had a housing estate to look at, but I couldn’t ask people like her to knock their houses down so I could enjoy the nice view again. At that she thanked us for listening and went away. I don’t want to fall out with neighbours (luckily they are not immediately adjacent as the public footpath is between us) but there is a limit to how accommodating one can be. If I had never planted the trees in the first place they would not have been missed of course. How far would you go to keep your neighbours happy? All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2015.