Dealing with leaf fall

Hounslow Highways maintains over 11,300 street trees on behalf of the London Borough of Hounslow.

It is inevitable that leaves will fall from deciduous trees.  Hounslow Highways is responsible for clearing leaves and debris from trees that fall onto the public areas that we maintain.

The leaf clearance programme is compiled using past experience and data gathered from leaf-fall patterns associated with different tree species, including periods of leaf-drop and the volumes expected to fall. Hot summer weather, high winds, storms and frosts can sometimes accelerate leaf-fall causing our leaf clearance operation to commence earlier than expected. Similarly, mild, dry weather in early autumn may delay the start of the leaf clearance season.

During this period, we employ extra resource to support the cleansing teams, to help keep the streets clear of leaves.  Each ward in the borough will be visited between October and January, in addition to the fortnightly cleanse where operatives will remove leaves as part of their day-to-day street cleansing activities.

Please see here the 2022/2023 Leafing Schedule.  Please note that the schedule begins on Week 6 as the first six weeks focused on strategic cleansing of larger roads such as Chiswick High Road. Not all roads will be listed in the schedule, however this is because the roads not included in the Leafing Schedule will be cleared of leaves during the Ward Based Cleanse of that area on a fortnightly basis.  Please see Street Cleansing pages for the Ward Based Cleansing Schedule.

If there is excessive leaf fall, and the road is not listed in the schedule, please log a report through the website for assessment and reactive action, if required.

What about the leaves in my garden?

Hounslow Highways is responsible for clearing leaves off the public roads and pavements on the network we maintain on behalf of the London Borough of Hounslow.

It is the responsibility of the property owner to clear leaves off their own land, scheduled teams will not clear leaves from private property. Please do not sweep leaves onto the pavements after our teams have carried out leaf clearance as this will affect the schedule if our teams have to schedule in a return visit.