we've just chopped down an apple tree on advice from surveyor. He said that
the roots usually spread as far as the branches. He also said that root
pruning used to be thought of as working but that actually the tree can
actually grow more if the roots are pruned which seemed to make sense as
pruning the top certainly tends to encourage growth rather than restrict it.
However our tree was very close and very high. Yours sounds more like a
borderline case to me. --
Hayley
(gardening on well drained, alkaline clay in Somerset)