A landmark case may alter the way councils manage their street trees. Subsidence is one of those problems that simply will not go a way in cities and towns. The earth has not suddenly become less stable, but people are making more claims on their household insurance referring to subsidence problems, often related to nearby trees. "There has been a total change in public expectations regarding buildings, and where people would have put up with the odd crack a few years ago, now they make a claim on their insurance," says arboricultural consultant Giles Biddle, author of Tree Root Damage to Buildings. "The cost of subsidence claims has escalated enormously. Even in a wet summer there a re more claims than there were in the drought summerof 1976."
展开▼
