Ministers will unveil peace plan to end leylandii wars
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Your support makes all the difference.Measures to stop leylandii hedges growing to huge heights are to be announced this week.
Measures to stop leylandii hedges growing to huge heights are to be announced this week.
The Government will unveil the results of its nine-month consultation process on how to deal with the trees, which can grow by three feet a year up to about 100ft. One option is thought to involve imposing a height limit on leylandii but that would be difficult to enforce. Another solution would be to give local authorities powers to intervene in hedge disputes between neighbours.
The Government's inquiry began after MPs of all parties were deluged with complaints from constituents about overgrown leylandii blocking out their light and undermining their properties' foundations.
Last year Jim Cunningham, Labour MP for Coventry South, introduced a backbench Bill to give council officers powers to conciliate between neighbours and then order the hedges to be cropped if there was no settlement. Mr Cunningham said yesterday: "In France they have an arbitrary height limit for hedges. We think no two cases are necessarily the same and it's a question that somebody on the ground must make a judgement about."
A Government spokesman confirmed that an announcement would be made this week. He said: "We are trying to find a happy medium so that people can grow things in their garden but are not being a complete menace to their neighbours."
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