Cyclical Tree Risk Assessment — Standish Community High School, Wigan

CLIENT: Standish Community High School, Wigan

PROJECT TYPE: Cyclical tree risk assessment — two-yearly inspection programme

SERVICES DELIVERED: Visual Tree Assessment, QTRA risk rating, tree schedule, prioritised works schedule, neighbour daylight dispute written advice

THE CHALLENGE:

Standish Community High School is the largest secondary school in Wigan — a large, busy campus with significant tree populations across the school grounds and along its boundaries. With hundreds of pupils, staff, and visitors on site every school day, the duty of care to manage tree risk to the highest standard is particularly important — and the consequences of an undetected structural defect in a school environment are among the most serious of any setting.

Urban Tree Management was appointed to deliver a cyclical tree risk assessment programme on a two-yearly inspection cycle, covering all trees across the school grounds and boundaries — a population of approximately 50 individual trees and groups. In addition to the ongoing risk assessment programme, the school faced a specific challenge from a neighbouring property whose owner was claiming that trees on the school boundary were blocking daylight and demanding that the school carry out pruning works to restore light levels. The school needed professional arboricultural advice on whether this demand had any legal basis before agreeing to or refusing the works.

OUR ROLE:

Urban Tree Management carried out the full cyclical tree risk assessment across the school grounds and boundaries, assessing all 50 trees and groups using the Visual Tree Assessment methodology and risk-rating using QTRA. All findings were recorded using GPS-enabled digital survey software, producing a georeferenced tree location plan, condition and risk ratings for every tree, and a prioritised works schedule identifying all trees requiring management intervention. All inspections were carried out by Enhanced DBS-checked consultants in compliance with the school's safeguarding requirements.

In relation to the neighbour's daylight dispute, Urban Tree Management provided the school with clear, authoritative written advice on the relevant legal position. Under English law there is no general right to light from trees. The right to light is a specific legal right applying to buildings receiving light through defined apertures such as windows — not to gardens or amenity space — and requires formal legal establishment through an easement acquired by long use. Crucially even where such a right has been established, there is no automatic obligation on a neighbour to prune or remove trees causing the obstruction. The trees in question were well away from the neighbouring property boundary, making any claim of legal obligation to act entirely without foundation. Urban Tree Management provided this advice in writing, giving the school a clear, professionally documented response to the neighbour's demands.

THE OUTCOME:

Standish Community High School received a complete, professionally documented cyclical tree risk assessment covering all trees across the site — providing defensible evidence of their duty of care, a clear prioritised works schedule for their site management team, and a georeferenced tree inventory for future inspection cycles. The school also received clear, authoritative written advice confirming they had no legal obligation to carry out pruning works on behalf of their neighbour — allowing them to respond to the dispute with confidence and without incurring unnecessary tree surgery costs.

Tree Risk Assessments for Schools — Greater Manchester, Lancashire & Cheshire

Tree Management provides cyclical tree risk assessments for schools across the North West — DBS-checked, QTRA-qualified, and experienced in managing the specific duty of care and safeguarding requirements of the education sector.

Get in contact with our highly experienced and personable team of arboriculturists today, to discuss your requirements and to obtain your zero obligation quotation.