Abbey Court Abbey Road City Of Westminster London NW8 9AP
Location: Back garden, Abbey Court.T002 Hawthorn - remove to prevent further damage to wall.T003 Sycamore - remove to prevent further damage to wall and allow for remedial work.T004 Hawthorn - remove to prevent further damage to wall.T005 Lime - remove to prevent further damage to wall and allow for remedial work.The above trees are growing close against the wall which forms the South boundary in the garden of this property. The wall is in very poor condition with historic and more recent damage evident. My client would like to proceed with removal of these four trees in order to undertake robust remedial work to secure the wall and to prevent continued damage to the wall. The wall is within close proximity to a footpath in the garden of Abbey Court and adjoins a car park on its South side and so represents considerable risk to life and property on both sides of the boundary. A report by a structural engineer, dated 13/09/24, concludes the following:'Several cracks have evidently been repaired and have continued to move.A large section of the wall has been rebuilt above the neighbour's higher ground level, and it appears continuingmovement in the lower retaining section has caused the wall to bulge rather than lean over part of its length.Some of the movement appears to have been caused by vehicle impact in the past. However, there is furthersignificant cracking away from these areas, which we would attribute to ongoing ground movement caused by thetrees.Given the clay subsoils and proximity of the trees to the retaining wall, even assuming low shrinkability clay, thetrees would be influencing the clay up to 2.2m below ground level. This seasonal movement in the retaining wall iscausing progressive movement out of plane. Ultimately this will lead to collapse.We would recommend that the mature Sycamore and Lime trees are removed in order to allow robust remedialworks to be carried out to the wall. We would also recommend the