Two years ago we planted a mixed deciduous hedge to support the
wildlife: this included hawthorn, blackthorn, guelder rose, dog rose,
hazel and field maple, and has done amazingly well, reaching 8ft high
in parts and flowering and producing many berries for the birds. We
have been thrilled with its progress.

However, we have the misfortune to have acquired an extremely odd
neighbour who refuses to talk to anyone (especially us) and seems
obsessed with his privacy. He has now planted a leylandii hedge all
along the other side of this boundary. This in itself does not
particularly disturb us, since he is on our north side and it has
probably not occurred to him that it will be his own light which will
suffer, not ours. This man gives every appearance of not being a
gardener. However, we are upset that in planting the leylandii he has
(or has had) our own deciduous hedge cut back - probably beyond the
boundary, but it is difficult to prove that of course. They have
removed growing tips of the wild roses and have also today cut off
some branches of an existing ash tree which was right on the boundary
- and thrown them over our side.

We are sure that our hedge will recover (and hope his dies quickly!)
but is there anything we can do legally about what he has done to the
ash tree? I've looked on the hedgeline site but it doesn't really
help.

Sorry to sound off, but you can all imagine how we feel! By the way,
there is absolutely NO way we can discuss this with him - a polite and
friendly good morning is met with a turned back, and after a year
we've just given up.

--
Sally in Shropshire, UK
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