R H Topham and Sons: Tree Risk Management
R H Topham & Sons is a family-owned farming business that manage Eltisley Estate, a rural Cambridgeshire estate of approximately 1,570 ha located in South Cambridgeshire between the charming market town of St Neots and the village of Lower Cambourne.
As tree owners R H Topham and Sons had a legal duty of care under both civil law and criminal law to take reasonable care for the safety of those who may come within the vicinity of a tree.
R H Topham and Sons: Tree Risk Management
R H Topham & Sons is a family-owned farming business that manage Eltisley Estate, a rural Cambridgeshire estate of approximately 1,570 ha located in South Cambridgeshire between the charming market town of St Neots and the village of Lower Cambourne.
As tree owners R H Topham and Sons had a legal duty of care under both civil law and criminal law to take reasonable care for the safety of those who may come within the vicinity of a tree.
Nicholsons’ solution
Nicholsons assisted R H Topham and Sons in assessing the risks arising from their tree stocks and in adopting measures to keep those risks as low as is reasonably practicable. This was achieved by creating a Tree Risk Management Policy, which provided a balanced and proportionate framework for managing trees for safety, and implementing a programme of tree risk assessment surveys which identifies and analyses tree related risks. Together, they enable R H Topham and Sons to satisfy their legal duty of care, take a cost-effective approach in making tree risk management decisions, and avoid unnecessary tree loss while balancing the benefits of trees with the risk that they pose.
Nicholsons’ solution
Nicholsons assisted R H Topham and Sons in assessing the risks arising from their tree stocks and in adopting measures to keep those risks as low as is reasonably practicable. This was achieved by creating a Tree Risk Management Policy, which provided a balanced and proportionate framework for managing trees for safety, and implementing a programme of tree risk assessment surveys which identifies and analyses tree related risks. Together, they enable R H Topham and Sons to satisfy their legal duty of care, take a cost-effective approach in making tree risk management decisions, and avoid unnecessary tree loss while balancing the benefits of trees with the risk that they pose.
“With a large number of trees next to public rights of way and highways, as well as working areas across the estate, we needed a professional team to help us satisfy our legal duty of care and manage the risk to the public and everyone else on the estate. Nicholsons have worked closely with us, and as independent advisers, to achieve this in a practical way. The resulting policies and periodic risk assessments are clear and comprehensive, and provide the necessary guidance and timings for contractors to carry out remedial work in a systematic way, giving us confidence the risks are being appropriately managed. Nicholsons come very highly recommended by us”.
– Michael Topham
