1. Please may I know how many notices have been issued under section 154 of the Highways Act 1980 by standard post?
2. How many of these were addressed to “The Owner/Occupier” or similar where the name of the intended recipient was not known?
Please may I have the information for the financial year 01/04/2025 to 31/03/2026 and for this financial year from 01/04/2026 to the date at which you collate the information.
For context, Section 154 of the Highways Act 1980 empowers competent authorities to require the removal or cutting of overhanging or dangerous trees, hedges, and shrubs to ensure the safety of highways and public footpaths.
Regarding Obstructive Overgrown Vegetation:
A search of the relevant mailbox showed that from April 2025 – March 2026 873 requests to send S154 notices were received.
The same search showed that between 1st April 2026 and 8th June 2026 104 requests to send S154 notices were received.
Obviously a request for a notice does not necessarily always lead to a S154 notice being issued.
Each record would need to be examined individually to determine how many notices were sent to landowners/occupiers (if there is a long stretch of obstructive overgrown vegetation there could easily be six or more landowners involved), and whether or not these notices were addressed to specific landowners/occupiers.
Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 makes provision for public authorities to refuse requests for information where the cost of compliance would exceed the appropriate limit, which for local government is set at £450 or 18 hours of officer time.
In order to locate and retrieve the information needed to answer the questions above, we would have to manually review 977 records. As it would take at least 5 minutes to check each record, this would take over 81 hours, which is well in excess of the 18 hour appropriate limit.
This response acts as a Refusal Notice for the whole of this request.
Regarding Tree Safety Management:
This information is not held by Devon County Council. Anecdotally, the number of S154 notices sent by Devon County Council has dropped in recent years. It is very rare that anything is sent to the owner/occupier.