Clarity On Hedges That are both Deciduous & Evergreen

[GordonM]

Hi all,

 

 

The reason i'm writing a post is due to a disagreement with the neighbours regarding some trees and hedges in the garden. We're trying to solve it amicably but looking like it may go down the council route. I've asked the council for some guidance to help clarify how rulings would work in cases where a "hedge" is a mix of both Deciduous and Evergreen trees, and where the line would be drawn in cases where the hedge is quite long indeed. Unfortunately the council weren't able to give me a clear answer, so was hoping to get some advice on here aswell. We're based in the NE of England.

 

I've done a crude MS paint image of the layout of the trees and hedges in question to help demonstrate the situation. In this case all trees and hedges belong to Property 4, and Property 2 and 3 have an issue (understandably we think) with the height of the Laurels and Confiers that are above 2M and overhanging the boundary of the land. 

 

I appreciate the .gov guidance states that for it to be considered a 'high hedge', it [i] is formed wholly or predominantly by a line of two or more evergreens. [/i] But the bit we're unclear on is; what about any deciduous trees that are part of this hedge too. In this case it is very likely mostly deciduous if you treat the whole hedge as one and i'd imagine a complaint wouldn't be upheld in this case?

 

Or am I looking at this the wrong way? I.e is it possible for the complaint to be limited to the evergreen trees solely? (laurels and conifers) and leave the deciduous trees entirely excluded and untouched? If viewed this way then the 'hedge' is 100% evergreen.... and i'd imagine the complaint would be upheld?

 

 

What do people think? can anyone shed some light on this (no pun intended :D) or have been through something similar themselves?

 

 

Image below, for scale reference, the depth of the Laurel is about 3Meters or so, 

 

cheers

Ged

 

Edited August 10 by GordonM

[daltontrees]

What country are you in?

[GordonM]

Hey, we're in the NE of England, i'll update the original body to include this.

[GarethM]

What exactly are you asking as the property owner of number 1.

[GordonM]

I'm asking if this went the formal route, would the Deciduous trees be affected if a complaint was raised? The complaint would be regarding the height of the evergreen Laurels and Confiers in the corner. But if the council route is taken we're not sure if the outcome would be to reduce the height of those, or reduce the height of all the deciduous trees next to them too. It's not clear to us from the .gov website where they would deem the 'hedge' to start and end.... or whether the complaint can be limited to the evergreens so the deciduous remain untouched.

Property1 has been asked to reduce the height of the evergreens and the deciduous and to pay for it all, they have said no. 

[GarethM]

The council will do absolutely NOTHING other than empty words and platitudes.

 

If you're asking will they force a owner to cut a tree, that's a no.

 

If you're offering to pay for someone to do it for the owners they might be happy to, but your going down an arsey road of piss em off and they'll just let it grow as it probably predates yours by a good few decades.

[GordonM]

Thanks,

 

We're certain that the evergreens in the corner do qualify for a complaint. As they are a run of more than 1 evergreen hedge and are over 2M in height. As I said above it is those that the complaint would be focused on with the council, (with a fee of £500 no less).  I imagine the outcome could only go three ways, and we're just unsure on which. Those 3 being

:- The council agree with the complaint and deem only the evergreen portion as the 'hedge' and make an order for only those laurels and confiers to be reduced to 2M height.

:- The council deem the entire run (all evergreen and deciduous) as one huge hedge of which there is more deciduous than evergreen, and reject the complaint as it's not "predominately or wholly evergreen"

:- The council agree with the complaint and order all the evergreens and deciduous to be reduced down to 2M. 

We think the last one is least likely. But really unclear on which way it will go.

 

What do you think?

[GarethM]

I vote for number 2, then you'll have an arsey neighbour forevermore with a grudge.

 

Just speak to them and don't go down the legal bs route, as if it was me I'd be slamming the door in your faces at the very mention of legal or right to light.

 

For lack of a better description, why should I have to cut back my hedge & trees because you bought a new build next to a tree that's been in my garden 20 years.

[GordonM]

I hear you, and thanks for the insight. We are all in dialogue to be fair, and have been in the past. We're just at the point where all parties have tried to agree but all the properties want something different, it's actually been good writing this out. 

Property  1, 2and 3 all feel they shouldn't have to pay to have the evergreen (laurens and confiers) part of the hedge reduced down to 2M, and feel the guidance and calculator on the gov website does clearly demonstrate that the evergreen portion of that can be complained about with success.

But again, it really comes down to how the council see that hedge....So my question does remain, does anyone know if the complaint can be limited to the evergreen portion of that hedge? and if not... what would it mean for the deciduous trees immediately next to them?

I

Edited August 10 by GordonM

[daltontrees]

55 minutes ago, GordonM said:

Hey, we're in the NE of England, i'll update the original body to include this.

The legislation is different in different parts of the UK.

 

The deciduous content can have only one of a few effects on the outcome.

 

Firstly if they are the majority of the hedge, it doesn't qualify for  a High Hedge notice, no matter how bad the shade.

 

Secondly if it is a high hedge the deciduous content will give the neighbour some relief from shade in the winter. This can be significant but will not be percevied as such, especially for sunlight.

 

Thirdly if there is a high hedge notice it most certainly can be part of the actions to have it reduced. It is the effect on enjoyment that matters, not that it is deciduous.

 

Which way it goes is  matter of degree. Mostly to do with height. It's not a binary decision.

 

Mixed hedges are impossible to predict. The HHLL calculation is not appropriate for most situations and makes no sense for partly deciduous hedges.

 

It is possible to split the assessment, for example assess only the laurels and ignores trees amongst them.

 

Rather poorly written legisaltion, badly written guidance and generally poor understanding of the technical issues by Councils and Reporters. Bit of a lottery really.