Chit Chat
There is currently 1 person viewing this thread.
My neighbour has complained that my leylandii are too high and are blocking light to her garden. The council seem to agree with her even though it's my house bought and paid for. Her's is not a council house and non of the houses in the street are or have ever been.
My house is a semi and it's the neighbour from the attached house who has complained. The leylandii are at the bottom of my garden so only the width of them really affects her garden. Gardens face south as she looks from her garden the trees are to the east.
Smallish garden which is about 11 metres by 7 metres.
The bloke from the council said I have to reduce them to four metres which would only leave stumps.
The regs he quoted are:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/9408/hedgeheight.pdf
According to my calculations I think they could be 8-10 metres which I'd be happy with.
My house is a semi and it's the neighbour from the attached house who has complained. The leylandii are at the bottom of my garden so only the width of them really affects her garden. Gardens face south as she looks from her garden the trees are to the east.
Smallish garden which is about 11 metres by 7 metres.
The bloke from the council said I have to reduce them to four metres which would only leave stumps.
The regs he quoted are:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/9408/hedgeheight.pdf
According to my calculations I think they could be 8-10 metres which I'd be happy with.
sort by:
Show
per page
Replies: 59
|
By:
Charlie - as she looks out, the trees are to her left along your southern boundary?
How tall are they? |
|
By:
Cupressocyparis Leylandii - To quote that great gardener Christopher Lloyd when asked about them - "Seen everywhere, belong nowhere". This tree is just not suitable for garden hedging.
|
|
By:
Text went missing; short version was I agree but were then when I bought the house.
|
|
By:
*were there when I bought the house
|
|
By:
20 feet is plenty. It would keep her happy and you would get more light too.
|
|
By:
Charlie - That they were already there is irrelevant. Sound like the council guy is trying to resolve the issue by giving you guidance. If he issues you with a remedial notice you can be fined if you do not comply AND you will need to ensure that the hedge is kept trimmed to the required height all the time you are there. You'll be helped with that though because Leylandii dislike hard pruning and do not regrow from old wood.
|
|
By:
Just thought, with any luck if you hard prune the top AND she (as is her right) cuts off everything that overhangs her garden, they will probably die anyway. By the way she needs to give you all the trimmings.
|
|
By:
Injera and blackbarn
I'm not arguing they need reducing because they do. I'm just trying to work out the required height. The council bloke was ok after initially being snotty and threatening. I'm awaiting a quote from a company that has seen the requirements. I'm finding the definition of a hedge difficult because it's not parallel with her garden it's at the bottom of my garden and her garden is to the right so the trees are not parallel. The bloke who is going to give me a quote did mention that height wise they wont grow upwards but should grow laterally which I'm not sure helps. |
|
By:
Height wise if lopped.
|
|
By:
blackbarn
It wasn't a remedial notice it was a complaint from the neighbor that he had to respond to. |
|
By:
Charlie - I understand that. My point was that he is trying to resolve it WITHOUT a remedial notice. He'll probably issue one if you don't comply.
|
|
By:
Try threatening or intimidating her.
|
|
By:
|
|
By:
I’m sure you can reach a good compromise Charlie. They sound huge so at 20-30ft she should be happy.
(Keep the council out of it!) |
|
By:
Take a few feet off the bottom.
|
|
By:
Richie Burnett - "Try threatening or intimidating her"
What kind of person would post this? |
|
By:
I had a next-door neighbour once whose leylandii trees had been a source of bitter dispute between her and her other neighbour for years.
The feud only ended when one of the trees fell over and crushed the owner's car. |
|
By:
Ugly trees, not great for plants or grass, rip ‘em out!
Seriously though there must be some sort of guide height. I would investigate more. If you have a small garden I would rather a big wall or fence with trellis and some lovely big flowering plants or bushes graduated downwards towards your view. Much nicer to look at than dull and dark green screen. |
|
By:
No one has a right to light, i thought
|
|
By:
You earn a right to light in a room with a window after 20 years of habitation, it will be probably different with gardens.
|
|
By:
This is up to the council...you have to appeal to them
Does not sound like your neighbour will back down |
|
By:
|
|
By:
I believe you Richie.....thousands wouldnt
 |
|
By:
Richie is a good bloke and I'll stand up for for him any day.
The height is, apparently, given in the link I gave in OP but requires calculating which is what I asked for. I've re-estimated the garden as 20 metres long. I have three trees at the bottom of the garden which are the problem. It sounds ridiculous but I can, according the the link I gave, cut two of them down because a hedge constitutes two or more trees (which have to be evergreen). If I cut two down and leave one the the neighbour would be no better off. There is a bit of history with the neighbour which I wont go into now. |
|
By:
 |
|
By:
Agreed on contract to take all three of them down. Cost is £3100, including VAT, which I thought was steep but after three quotes seems the going rate. Price also includes chopping down a couple of wild trees, tidying shrubs, general cleaning up and taking everything away.
It's apparently quite a tricky job because there's no easy access and they have to climb the trees, cut them and manually lower stuff down (I have a garage underneath them). The bloke from the council was useless and I'm sure he didn't know how to calculate the required height because when I asked him how he had calculated it he came up with some nonsense which wasn't anything like that given in the regs he quoted. |
|
By:
bloody hell three grand! the worlds gone mad
|
|
By:
Well done charlie, in the main they are a fookin menace.
|
|
By:
stupid neighbour doesn't realise that it is trees that distinguish upmarket neighbourhoods from concrete slums
|
|
By:
the working classes destroy everything given enough time
 |
|
By:
anyone with a hedge or tree height of 6ft 6ins should be dealt with
what was it that hitler said about apart height no that was those wonderful people at the cape happy days |
|
By:
The working class are the backbone of this and most countries. I class myself as working class but other people would categorise me as middle class. I'm proud of my family roots who worked hard often in really sh!tty jobs (miners, nail makers, brick makers, welders, furnace workers, moulders, etc). They were the salt of the earth and many of them died defending this country. Don't slag off the working class.
|
|
By:
I,m working class also Charlie, I know what they,re like
|
|
By:
the sight of some neighbours needs blocking out by tall trees , in my humble opinion
|
|
By:
moron blocks out light with high trees headline
a KHANTian of the highest order |