Novel solution to laws on hedges blocking the light

A couple who were ordered to cut back a hedge of huge Leylandii trees, which were blocking light from their neighbour's garden, hit on an unusual way to avoid trimming them. They removed every other tree - so that technically it's no longer a hedge.

Retired doctor Joan Robertson and her husband, in Ludin Links in Fife, were ordered to cut back their trees - along with a shorter beech hedge - after their neighbours turned to the courts. Dennis and Maureen Parry told the Daily Mail they had tried to approach their neighbours and persuade them to cut the hedges back for years, but eventually gave up and decided to go to court to force them to do so, using the High Hedges (Scotland) Act - which was introduced in 2013.

The judge ruled that the Robertsons should be made to trim the beech hedge from 16 feet to 11 feet, and the Leylandii hedge from 20 feet to 12 feet, as they were both high enough to block light. They appealed to the Scottish Government, arguing that the hedge wasn't out of control, and was an integral feature to their home. The government ruled that both hedges should be trimmed - but the Leylandii to just under 15 feet - and gave them a deadline of 30 September.

The Roberson trimmed the beech hedge, but decided to take an alternative approach with the larger hedge. Instead of making it shorter, they removed every other tree. Now it is technically not a hedge at all, but a row of 20 foot high trees - and as such falls out of the scope of the legislation, which excludes rows of trees which have 'gaps which significantly reduce its overall effect as a barrier."

The council told the Courier they were looking into the situation, and the Robertson's declined to comment. Without their side of the story it's impossible to know whether they were genuinely trying to allow light into their neighbour's garden or whether they were trying to find a cunning way to avoid trimming the hedge.
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Neighbour arguments

From the outside, it's difficult to know how things have ended up so dysfunctional. However, neighbour disputes over hedges and trees can easily get out of hand, as people feel there is no let up from the disagreement and it can be hard to see the wood for the trees.

We reported in May on the 75-year-old retired librarian in Solihull who said she had to keep her lights on during the day because the 50 feet conifer trees next door blocked so much light, and who turned to the press when efforts to discuss the matter politely failed.

Then there was the couple in Cannock, Staffordshire, who spent 17 years arguing over a row of conifer trees before a court decided in 2013 that they should be cut back.

There are times when people take matters into their own hands - which is a dangerous idea. In November 2012, a man from Poole in Dorset was fined £125,000 for chopping a neighbour's tree down. The tree was blocking the view from his new hot tub and sun deck, and while his neighbour was away on his honeymoon, the tree was chopped down. The court ordered him to pay £125,000 - to account for the increase in the value of his property from his illegal act.

And there are times when things get entirely out of hand. In 2002, a couple ended up in prison for trimming a hedge beside their property. The couple had already received a court order stopping them from trimming it. So when they broke the court order, they were jailed for 28 days.

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