High Hedges

PLEASE NOTE: Individual trees and shrubs are outside the scope of the legislation.

Legislation allows you to trim a hedge that is growing over your boundary, but you can only trim up to your property boundary. If you do more than this, your neighbour could take you to court for damaging their property.

Before a formal complaint is made to the council, you are expected to have read Communities and Local Government leaflet - High Hedges: Complaining to the Council and taken all reasonable steps to resolve the matter with your neighbour. In cases where direct negotiation with the hedge owner has proved unproductive, assistance from local mediation services will need to be sought, before formal a complaint can be lodged with Torridge District Council - North Devon Mediation Service

Part 8 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 and the High Hedges (Appeals) (England) Regulations 2005 gives councils the power to deal with complaints about high hedges.  The Act allows us to determine complaints by the owner/occupier of residential/domestic properties adversely affected by evergreen or semi-evergreen hedges over two metres high; this includes cypresses (eg: leylandii), other conifers, yews, laurels, box hedges and other evergreens/semi-evergreens.

The legislation allows us to charge a fee for this service; our current charge is £635 which is payable when submitting your complaint form.

Information will be sought from both you and the hedge owner, and a site visit will take place. A decision will be made within 12 weeks of receipt of the complaint.

Things the council WILL consider

Blocking of light is a significant factor in most complaints received and guidelines are available on the objective assessment of the extent to which houses and gardens are shaded by hedges. Other factors that will be considered are privacy, screening, blocking of views and the potential value of hedges as windbreaks.

Things the council WON'T consider

Problems relating to root activity (for example, subsidence, blocking of drains, roots taking moisture from the soil and affecting other plants) are excluded from this legislation and not taken into account.

Remedial notices

If appropriate, we can issue a remedial notice requiring works be undertaken on a problem hedge. This becomes a charge on the hedge owner's property and legal obligations under such a notice pass to any subsequent owners. The council doesn't have powers to require hedges to be reduced to less than 2m in height. The height to which it will be appropriate to reduce specific hedges will depend on the circumstances of each case.  A Remedial notice will make provision for ongoing works to ensure that the hedge is maintained at a reasonable height in future.

A time limit for carrying out remedial works is given in the notice but needs to be reasonable, giving the hedge owner the opportunity to enlist the services of a contractor, if necessary, and arrange for works to be carried out. If works are to be carried out during the months March to September, the hedge should be checked for nesting birds first, to be compliant with wildlife protection legislation.

There is a right of appeal by the hedge owner against a remedial notice. Similarly, the complainant may appeal if we decide not to issue a remedial notice, or if we issue and then subsequently withdraw a notice. Either party may appeal against the terms of a remedial notice on the grounds that it either goes too far or does not go far enough. Appeals are dealt with by the Planning Inspectorate.

We can take enforcement action if the terms of remedial notices are not complied with. Failure to comply incurs a fine of up to £1000 in a magistrate's court. Further fines can be incurred if the notice isn't complied with after the first court appearance. We also have powers to enter land and carry out works in default required by a remedial notice and recover any expenses from the hedge owner.