Summary: Mrs X complained that the Council will not take enforcement action about a neighbour’s high hedge, despite a remedial notice being in place. Mrs X said the hedge affects her enjoyment of her garden. She said it has caused her stress and she will have to pay again for the Council to investigate the high hedge. We do not find the Council at fault.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to here as Mrs X, complains that the Council will not take enforcement action about a neighbour’s high hedge, despite a remedial notice already being in place. She complains that the Council says she will have to make a new complaint about the hedge.
2. Mrs X says she will have to pay again for the Council to look at her complaint, having paid once already in 2009. She says the hedge affects her enjoyment of her garden. She says it has caused her stress.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
4. If we are satisfied with a council’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

5. I considered the information and documents provided by Mrs X and the Council. I spoke to Mrs X about her complaint. Mrs X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on an earlier draft of this statement. I considered all comments and further information received before I reached a final decision.
6. I considered the relevant legislation and guidance, set out below.

Back to top

What I found

What should have happened

7. If someone has a high hedge, the law gives councils the power to make a remedial notice. A remedial notice means the hedge owner has to keep the hedge under a certain height. A remedial notice also means a council can take enforcement action to make sure the hedge is maintained at an agreed height.
8. There is a process for obtaining a remedial notice. First, a person has to complain to a council about a high hedge. Councils usually charge a fee to investigate high hedge complaints. The council will then decide whether to issue a remedial notice.
9. A remedial notice will define how the hedge should be managed. A remedial notice must describe the hedge it relates to. Government guidance says a description of the hedge “will help to differentiate it from any new hedge that might be planted as a replacement for the original one”.

What happened

10. In 2009, the Council issued a remedial notice against Mrs X’s neighbour about their high hedge which runs along the boundary with Mrs X’s property.
11. In 2020, Mrs X told the Council that her neighbour had planted new evergreen trees which she said formed part of the high hedge. Mrs X said these new trees were considerably higher than the hedge. She asked the Council to inspect the newly planted trees to see if they impacted on the remedial notice.
12. The Council told Mrs X that these new trees did not form part of the original hedge, for which the remedial notice was issued. For this reason, it said Mrs X needed to submit a new high hedge complaint.
13. In 2021, Mrs X formally complained to the Council that it would not take enforcement action about the new trees.
14. In its response to Mrs X’s complaint, the Council said that under law it could not require the new trees to be bound by the terms of the remedial notice, issued 11 years earlier. This is because the trees were newly planted, so they did not form part of the original hedge.

Analysis

15. Mrs X believes the new trees should be covered by the original remedial notice because they were planted so close to the old hedge. I do not agree.
16. The law says a remedial notice must describe the hedge it relates to and this description “will help to differentiate it from any new hedge that might be planted”. The new trees were not in the ground until 11 years after the remedial notice was issued. For this reason, the new hedges cannot in law be covered by the existing remedial notice.
17. I therefore find the Council is not at fault.
18. There is an appropriate process for Mrs X to follow if she wants the Council to see if these new trees can be covered by a remedial notice. Mrs X says she does not want to pay for a new high hedge complaint because she has already paid once, in 2009. This is not a reason for the Ombudsman to find the Council at fault.

Back to top

Final decision

19. I have completed my investigation and I do not uphold Mrs X’s complaint. This is because there is no fault.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman