High Hedges

From the 1st June 2005 the Council has been given new powers to deal with nuisance high hedges under a provision of the Antisocial Behaviour Act 2003.

There are some important points to note about these new powers: -

• They only apply to evergreen or semi-evergreen hedges more than two metres high.
• The Council will only deal with a complaint if the person affected has taken reasonable steps to settle the dispute themselves before making a formal complaint to the Council; a complaint to the Council should be a last resort.
• You will have to pay a fee to the Council, £300.00, reduced to £150.00 if you are in receipt of a means tested benefit, to have a formal complaint considered. This will normally be non-refundable even if your complaint is upheld.

What to do if you think you are affected by a nuisance High Hedge?

1. Try and resolve the matter directly with your neighbour. Advice on how you can do this is set out in the Government leaflet “Over the Garden Hedge”

The Council will not accept a formal complaint under the legislation unless you can show that you have made recent attempts to resolve the issue directly with your neighbour. On initial contact with the Council you will be provided with a copy of the “Over the Garden Hedge” leaflet and you will be expected to follow the advice given before you can submit a formal complaint.

2. Establish that the hedge does fall into the definitions set out in the regulations and guidance

Chapter 4 of the Government document “High Hedge Complaints – Prevention and Cure” sets out the relevant criteria in detail. In a limited number of marginal cases, where there is doubt about the interpretation of the regulations, the Council will have to make a decision about whether a complaint would be within the scope of the legislation.

3. Calculate the impact of the hedge on your property

The Government booklet “Hedge Height and Light Loss” sets out calculation methods for establishing whether high hedges block too much daylight and sunlight to adjoining properties, and provides guidance on hedge heights to alleviate these problems. The document introduces the concept of “Action hedge height” above which a hedge is likely to block too much light.

It is not essential that you follow this procedure before submitting a formal complaint. However, the Council will follow this procedure and it is unlikely that any formal complaint you make will be upheld if the hedge you are concerned about is lower than the action hedge height.

4. Submitting a formal complaint

If the hedge falls within the regulations, you believe its height has an adverse affect on the reasonable enjoyment of your domestic property and you have made all reasonable attempts to resolve the situation with the hedge owner you may now wish to submit a formal complaint to the Council.

The complaint form and the guidance notes for completing it are available for downloading from this site.

Once you have completed the form, including the plans, photographs, provided evidence of attempts to resolve the complaints and required fee, you should send to:

Environmental Health and Trading Standards
P.O. Box 233
County Offices
Bath Street
Hereford
HR1 2ZF

How will the Council deal with a formal high hedge complaint?

The first thing the Council will do is to check the complaint is valid and that all the appropriate information is provided.   Please read the guidance note carefully on how to fill in the complaint form and what needs to accompany it.

Once we have checked that we have all the information we need we will acknowledge receipt of the completed complaint form.   Otherwise we will return the documents and fee to you explaining either why the complaint does not comply with the regulations, or what further information we need from you.

A completed complaint file will be allocated to a case office.   He or she will notify the hedge owner of the complaint and arrange to visit the site to view it from both sides.

The case officer will obtain all of the information needed to make the calculations set out in the “Hedge height and light loss” document and consider any written representations received from interested parties.   Other issues which are relevant to the decision on the complaint include: -

• Public Amenity
• Protected Trees
• Planning Conditions
• Historic, wildlife and landscape value
• Covenants

When all of the information has been obtained the case officer will prepare a report which deals with all of the relevant factors and a decision will be made as to whether the complaint should succeed or fail. The hedge owner and complainant will be notified of the decision.

At this stage we are not sure how long this process will take. There is no prescribed timescale, although government guidance suggests it may be about 12 weeks. This will depend on the complexity of individual cases, how many complaints we receive and the overall workload of case officers.

After the decision is made

If the Council uphold the complaint, in the majority of cases, this will be followed by the service of a “remedial notice” on the hedge owner. This is a legal document which will explain what action must be taken in relation to the hedge in order to remedy the adverse effect and, if necessary, to prevent it recurring. It will also specify the date when these works should be carried out.

The hedge owner can appeal against the service of a “remedial notice” within 28 days of receiving it. Under certain circumstances the complainant can also appeal if they feel that the remedial notice does not go far enough.

If the Council, reject the complaint, or uphold it, but decide not to serve a remedial notice, the complainant has a right of appeal.

All appeals are to the Secretary of State, but are handled by the Planning Inspectorate (PINS) on his behalf. For further details of the appeals system please ask for a separate leaflet “High Hedges – appealing against the Council’s decision”.

Enforcement

If, once a remedial notice has been confirmed, or the works required are not done by the specified date, the Council has enforcement powers. These take two forms: -

1. To prosecute the person responsible for the hedge in the Magistrates Court; or
2. For the Council to carry out the specific works and to recover its costs from the person responsible for the hedge.

Contacting the Council

You can contact us for further advice and leaflets, or to make a formal complaint: (go to the resource box below for all the relevant documents) :-

Helpline Tel: 01432 261761
Email: info@herefordshire.gov.uk

For more information visit the external link box below and view the websites for:

Communities and Local Government (which contains a substantial amount of information in relation to high hedges) or Mediation UK (to find your nearest Community Mediation office)