The long established plum tree and a pear tree were the only hard fruit survivors of the councils attempt to rent the same plot to multiple tenants simultaneously. Unfortunately several other trees were grubbed out before I could resolve their mistake.
25/04/2015: The plum tree had a sever pruning, a lot of basal growth had occurred so this was removed, however, the main tree is showing weak growth and areas of dieback. The areas of visibly affected wood were removed but the tree is now unbalanced and it is going to take a awhile to restore the shape.