A stroke victim has been told he must cut down a nuisance tree himself as it isn’t affecting the highways.
Geoff Potter, 67, of Collingwood Road, Chorley, has battled with the overgrown tree outside his house for a number of months.
The tree continuously covers Mr Potter’s driveway with berries, blossom and leaves.
Mr Potter claims he has been told he must sort out the tree himself, although it is owned by Lancashire County Council.
He said: “My main concern is when the blossom is on the floor it becomes very slippy.
“I have a 94-year-old mother-in-law and she nearly slipped.
“Once some sort of berry got stuck in my windscreen wiper and it left a big scratch on my windscreen.
“LCC has refused to do anything despite my problems.”
Coun Ralph Snape, ward councillor for the area, called on a number of parties to seek extra opinions.
He said: “I called in the borough council tree expert and he contacted LCC and he got nowhere.
“I then brought County Coun Steve Holgate down and he again got nowhere.
“My point is everybody is responsible for their own property and LCC aren’t accepting their responsiblities.”
Andrew Burrows, Lancashire County Council’s highways manager for Chorley, said: “Lancashire County Council will always take action to prune or remove highway trees that cause a serious safety hazard to the public or adjacent property, such as removal of dead or diseased branches, but generally we will not use resources to undertake work to highway trees that are in a good healthy condition.
“An initial inspection of the tree on Collingwood Road showed it to be in a healthy condition, but we are planning a follow up inspection of the tree in the near future.”
