Woman reports next door family to police after cutting back her tree 'without permission'

By Oli Smith, News Reporter

The Surrey Police refused to get involved in the dispute (Image: Getty)

A furious row over tree branches has erupted between neighbours in a quiet leafy Surrey suburbs.

Sue Croft reported her neighbours to Surrey Police after they cut back her tree and "pulled down her fence" without her permission.

Sarah Davis, a 40-year-old mum, insisted she had no choice but to act after Mrs Croft repeatedly ignored requests to cut it back.

The row began when branches from a large tree in Mrs Croft's garden started to grow into Ms Davis' own garden space.

Ms Davis begged her neighbour to control the tree, complaining that her garden was being starved of natural light in the summer, but she was reportedly repeatedly ignored.

Desperate, Ms Davis employed a tree surgeon this week to remove a section of the neighbour's shared fence to chop the branches down. This escalated the already-fraught row into a police matter as Mrs Croft blasted the move as "vandalism and trespass".

A woman reported a family next-door to the police for trimming her tree (Image: Getty)

However, Surrey Police refused to get involved in the dispute.

Mrs Croft furiously took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to say: "Surrey Police have determined it is a civil matter.

"So your neighbours can pull down your fence and wander around in your garden without fear of consequences. Welcome to Great Britain."

Ms Davis told the MailOnline that the neighbourhood had grown accustomed to Mrs Croft's "outrage".

She said: "She is utterly ridiculous. She's completely in the wrong. We spoke to her prior to the tree surgery being done, she was fully aware. That tree is hers and she doesn't maintain it.

"It encroaches on our property and was putting pressure on the hedge and public footpath beneath it which is now buckling under the strain of the roots and becoming uneven and dangerous."

She revealed that she had lived in fear of the tree crashing into her garden and house during a fierce storm, adding: "We have had storms and it sways violently, it was scary."

Ms Davis also ridiculed the decision to ask for police help, saying: "What are the police going to do? She's utterly insane! She had her ridiculous willow tree cut back by tree surgeons last week and they had to remove a panel in our fence to get access. She didn't ask us for permission, but it's clearly one rule for us and another for her."

A spokesman for the tree surgeon disputed claims that the fence was damaged.