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Branches Touching Power Lines
Branches have grown into the overhead cables crossing the garden, or a limb is resting on the line after wind.
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What's happening?
This is not a pruning job and it is not yours to do. Overhead lines can injure or kill without being touched: get close enough and electricity flashes over the gap, through a branch, a pole saw or a person. Wet wood conducts, so a branch resting on a line is a live route to the ground. HSE's guidance for tree work is explicit that any arboricultural work proposed within 10 metres of an overhead power line — measured horizontally at ground level from below the nearest wire — needs specialist advice from the line's owner, normally the network operator, before anything starts. Work further away also counts if a falling branch, a ladder or a platform could breach that distance. In practice the operator is involved before the tree surgeon.
What usually causes it?
- Ordinary growth over years bringing the canopy up into a line that used to be clear
- A service cable running from a pole to the house across a garden with a tree beneath it
- A storm-damaged limb dropping onto the line and being held there
- A tree planted, or self-seeded, directly under an existing line
- Sagging cables in hot weather or after a pole has moved, reducing the clearance
- Previous topping producing dense regrowth that has grown back into the wires quickly
- A leaning or partially windblown tree bringing its crown towards the line
Is it dangerous?
Yes, treat it as an emergency and keep everyone away. Do not climb the tree, use a ladder, use a pole saw or extending pruner, throw a rope, or try to lift a branch clear — flashover does not require contact and the equipment does not have to be metal to conduct. Keep well back from the tree and from anything touching it, and keep children and pets indoors. If a cable has been brought down, is sparking, or is lying where anyone could reach it, call the emergency services and the electricity network operator straight away and keep people at a distance until they arrive. Do not attempt to move a fallen cable under any circumstances.
Can I fix it myself?
Nothing at the tree, and that is the correct answer rather than a cautious one. What you should do is report it. Contact the electricity network operator for your area — the operator is responsible for the line, and clearing vegetation from their network is normally their work and at their cost where it is their cable. If the line is the service cable to your own house, say so, because ownership of that final span differs and they will tell you who deals with it. Take photographs from a safe distance showing the tree and the line, note whether the branch is resting on or merely near the wires, and keep the area beneath clear.
When should you call a tree surgeon?
Report it to the network operator first, not to a tree surgeon. A tree surgeon cannot lawfully or safely work within 10 metres of an overhead line without the operator's involvement, and reputable ones will tell you the same. Once the operator has attended — isolating, shrouding or clearing the line, or confirming what may be done — a tree surgeon deals with the rest of the tree. Bring both forward if the tree is also leaning, decayed or storm-damaged.
What will the tree surgeon actually do?
- Refuse to start until the line owner has been contacted, and work only to the safe system of work agreed with them
- Work with the network operator on isolation, shrouding or a permit before any cutting near the line
- Assess the whole tree, including whether debris, a platform or a falling limb could breach the 10 metre distance
- Rig and lower branches away from the line under control rather than dropping them
- Reduce or reshape the crown to give lasting clearance rather than a cut that regrows into the wires
- Advise on removal and replanting away from the line where regrowth will simply repeat the problem
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