For some months now I have been warning about problems which have been occurring on our urbanisation caused by palm trees and hedges.

An owner last week had to have the pavement outside the property dug up to gain access to the sewer to the property. The sewer had collapsed and had to be renewed and the only access to it was via the pavement.

Workmen had to dig a hole in the pavement and then tunnel their way under the garden wall and under the garden to replace the collapsed sewer.

The cause was a palm tree or roots from a hedge. Palm trees were small when they were first planted in gardens of our urbanisation. They did not weigh much. Now , 16 years later, they are as high as a house and if they are above a sewer you can imagine the weight bearing down on the pipework.

Hedges have long roots and they seek out any water source. A small leak in a sewer pipe will draw roots from hedges metres away and once a root is inside will quickly grow and spread to block the sewer.

This is a costly exercise for the urbanisation if it is urbanisation property and an even worse disaster for an individual owner having to spend a lot of money for repairs.

My plea is for you to seriously consider getting palm trees and hedges removed if you have them in your garden. Palm trees may look appropriate for the Mediterranean area we are living in but are totally inappropriate for small gardens, especially if they have been planted directly above a sewer. Hedges give privacy, but their roots can grow longer than the height of the hedge.

I have asked Manuel of the original development company, if he can give me a plan of the sewer network for the urbanisation and if this is forthcoming I will publish it on our website as a help for all owners – hopefully it can save you a large future bill!