Chesterfield householder served with notice to cut back hedging that blocks light into neighbour's home - or risk £1,000 fine

Julie Hampsey, of The Dell, Ashgate has been served with a notice by the borough council requesting that she trims the evergreen border to 4.6 metres and maintains it at that height at all times.

Ms Hampsey has been given six months to comply with the notice which took effect on July 18. Should she fail to have the work done, she could be prosecuted at magistrates court. The council also has the power to enter the land where the hedge is situated and carry out the works, with the cost recovered from the owner or occupier.

Her neighbour Luke Strong, also of The Dell, who lodged the complaint, said that the trees and hedges at Longlands were blocking daylight and sunlight to the main living areas of his house and to his garden and patio. An officer’s report to the council said that at its highest point, the hedging measured 14.8 metres and at its lowest 3 metres.

Mr Strong took his complaint to the planning authority after the two parties failed to reach a mutual agreement on the height.

The complainant said that the trees had not been cut for five years and the hedges had not been trimmed for two years until July 2022 when tree contractors worked at the property. In a submission to the council, Mr Strong said that he cut overhanging branches up until the middle of September that year when he was asked by his neighbour to stop pruning them because the Leylandii might have Tree Preservation Orders. In October he received a text from his neighbour asking whether contractors could come onto his land to cut back the hedging and trees which he agreed and asked to what height they would be pruned. He received no reply and no visit from the company the following day. When he asked his neighbour whether the company would return to cut the hedges she texted to say contractors had cut the trees around the borders and no further work was required.

Ms Hampsey said: “The hedge border at Longlands is maintained every 12-18 months to a height agreed with Chesterfield Borough Council many years ago.”

She stated that prior to the pruning in 2022, the trees and hedging had been cut in March 2000 just before Covid 19.

When she returned home from holiday in August 2022, she noticed that the big tree on the border had been severely cut with branches taken off at the trunk. “I understand that overhanging branches can be taken off and thrown back over the border but this was another level,” said Ms Hampsey in a letter to the council. She said that more branches were removed by Mr Strong the following month and when she went to his property and asked him why he was hacking the tree he became angry.

Ms Hampsey asked her contractor to liaise and talk with Mr Strong on her behalf. At a mediation meeting in November in which the contractor put various options to her neighbour Mr Strong was not open to any form of compromise or negotiation, said Ms Hampsey. It was suggested that because the hedge is a double bank of trees that they could be considerably lowered on his side (as done around other parts of the border). Another option was to cut at an angle on his side. She said: “On both counts it was a flat ‘no’ from Mr Strong. He said that he would rather have all the trees removed and erect a large fence instead.”

She commented that Mr Strong moved into the new-build property five years ago, planning for which was agreed after a site visit by members of the council team deemed the hedge and trees on her property that would border the new house were “absolutely fine”. During construction of the house, the builder asked whether the tree next to the gable end could be trimmed; the tree’s height was reduced and it was trimmed and shaped by specialist contractors.