A woman living in a ‘less affluent’ part of Marlow says landlord Red Kite has refused to cut back ‘huge’ trees which are leaving her in the cold and dark year-round.

Liz McFetridge, 43, believes her part of the pretty Buckinghamshire town is often overlooked by those charmed by its riverside vistas and well-maintained High Street.

Gunthorpe Road and Wiltshire Road, near Liz’s small two-storey home, are less visible than other parts of Marlow – making them less crucial to its ‘Best Kept Village’ bid – and, to the 43-year-old’s mind, an example of “people who are less affluent being ignored". 

Liz, who has lived in Butler Court on Gunthorpe Estate, a community housing area owned by Red Kite, for six years with her two children, says the primary issue not being addressed by her landlord is the epidemic of “huge” trees “engulfing” people’s homes.

She said: “We’ve had major problems growing anything in our garden because all the light is blocked. Branches keep coming down and blocking the gutters and we have to keep the lights on all year. It’s always cold, too, which can be handy in the summer, but also means we get damp on the walls.”

Her main concerns revolve around her children, aged six and nine, spending their early years in a cool, dark house with “sticks all over the garden and bird poo everywhere”.

But Red Kite has told her the trees won’t be reduced unless judged as “dangerous or damaging” – a threshold Liz thinks is too high a bar to produce any meaningful preventative action.

“I’m only allowed to cut the branches that hang over into my garden, but if I do that, Red Kite hands the responsibility over to me for any danger posed by the remaining tree.

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“Several of my neighbours feel the same way – we just want some of these trees to be topped off so the light can get through. I know it’s not the biggest problem in the world but it’s very frustrating to not be able to do anything about it.”

Comparing the overgrown trees in her area to those in another of Red Kite’s more central Marlow estates, Foxes Piece, the 43-year-old said she believes a discrepancy is down to pressure on the housing association to keep the image of “Marlow as people like it to be seen” intact. 

“I don’t know anywhere else in the town with the number of weeds we have here or the level of badly maintained paths. Getting any sort of change feels incredibly difficult."

Julie Gamble-Kemp, head of communications and brand at Red Kite, said: “The trees in this area are all mature and healthy and at their last inspections, carried out late last year, it was deemed that no work was required.

“Indeed, many of our tenants enjoy the trees and would be equally as upset if they were to be cut back or removed. We have recently carried out £1,500 of tree works at (the nearby) Marchant Court to cut two trees back from buildings.

“We have no plans to carry out further work at the moment, but if the tenant in question would like to contact us again with the details of the exact tree they are referring to, we will look into this at our next inspection.”