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Cyngor Sir Ynys Môn - Isle of Anglesey County Council

High hedges: a guide for homeowners


You can lodge a complaint with the County Council if you feel your home or property is being blighted by an evergreen hedge growing nearby. Complaints must be made in writing to the Planning Service.

You can complain, if you’re the owner or occupier of a domestic property.

You can complain if you believe that the height of a hedge, situated on land owned or occupied by another person, is having an adverse affect on the reasonable enjoyment of your property.

Yes. It is defined as a barrier to light or access, formed wholly or predominantly by a line of two or more evergreens; which rises to a height of more than two metres above ground level.

No.

The Act says that a line of evergreens should not to be regarded as a barrier to light or access if gaps significantly affect its overall effect as a barrier of more than two metres above ground level.

Yes. “Evergreen” means an evergreen tree or shrub or a semi-evergreen tree or shrub.

No. Roots are expressly excluded from this legislation.

To the Council. Your complaints will be handled by the County Council’s Planning Service

Yes. You’ll be charged a fee if you instruct the Council to proceed with a complaint.

No. You should take all reasonable steps to resolve a dispute with your neighbour before contacting the Council. Contacting the Council is seen as a last resort. The Council may decline to accept a complaint if it considers that you haven’t taken all reasonable steps to resolve matters or that the complaint is frivolous or vexatious. This provision is designed to prevent malicious and unfounded complaints, and ensure that you, as a complainant, have at least tried to reach an amicable agreement with the hedge owner. Complainants should keep a record of dates when verbal or written requests were made to the hedge owner, and any responses to them.

The Council must investigate the complaint, and decide whether or not it is justified, i.e. whether the height of the hedge is actually affecting the reasonable enjoyment of a property. The Council is obliged to notify the complainant(s) and the hedge owner of its decision and explain the reasons behind it.

Yes. National guidance notes and advice will be issued to all Local Authorities, in an attempt to ensure a standardised assessment of whether a hedge is “too high”.

The Council will issue the hedge owner with a “remedial notice”, specifying initial action to be taken; any preventative action needed and the penalties for failing to comply with the notice. The notice is valid as a “local land charge” on the deeds of the property, even if it changes ownership.

No. Nor can it be ordered for the hedge to be reduced in height below two metres.

The remedial notice will be stamped with its issue date. The notice will cite an operative date. This will be at least 28 days after the issue date, and is the date on which the notice takes effect. The notice will also cite a compliance period, which is the time considered sufficient for the work to be carried out.

Yes. The Council issuing the notice can withdraw it, or waive a requirement of the notice at any time. The complainant must be notified of the withdrawal.

Yes. Any party to the dispute may appeal against the Council’s decision, if they are unhappy with it. An appeal must ordinarily be lodged within 28 days of the issue of the Council’s decision. The Planning Inspectorate will deal with appeals.

The Council has legal power of entry into a property in order to investigate a high hedge complaint, and to carry out works which the hedge owner has failed to do. The cost of the works is recoverable by law from the hedge owner.

The Act creates an offence of failing to comply with a remedial notice, which on conviction is punishable by a fine.

The Council can send in workmen to cut the hedge and then charge the owner for the full costs.

Yes. A “body corporate” can be prosecuted in the same way as an individual, as can individual officers employed by that body corporate.