LEYLANDII hedges, the scourge of suburban Britain, will be cut down to size by new government measures aimed at curbing antisocial behaviour.

Downing Street announced yesterday that local authorities would be given powers to arbitrate in disputes between neighbours and judge when a hedge has grown too tall.

The plans will be rushed through Parliament as an amendment to the Antisocial Behaviour Bill, ranking Britain’s most popular hedging plant alongside burnt-out cars, graffiti and thuggery as a menace to society.

Under the proposals, a resident would be able to obtain a local authority ruling against neighbours ordering them to trim back a hedge if it grows over 2m (6½ft) high and blocks light or access to property.

A ruling could also be granted if a hedge “adversely affected the complainant’s reasonable enjoyment of their property”. Those ignoring a ruling could be fined up to £1,000.

Yvette Cooper, the Minister for Social Exclusion in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, said that intrusive hedges had caused anguish for law-abiding citizens for too long. “High hedges can make people’s lives a complete misery and can be just as distressing as antisocial behaviour like graffiti.

“Unreasonably high hedges can cause annoyance and misery for people and lead to confrontation between neighbours. The Government is determined to tackle anti- social behaviour wherever it happens.”

The disputes over the hedges, which can grow 3ft a year, claimed their first victim three years ago when a retired civil servant in the Welsh village of Talybont-on-Usk was shot dead after a longrunning dispute with his neighbour.

The Government had been committed to acting after the Private Member’s Bill of Stephen Pound, the Labour backbencher, on the issue was blocked in the Commons by Christopher Chope, the Tory MP.

Mr Pound, MP for Ealing North, said yesterday that he was delighted that the Government had taken up the cause. “There are 10,000 hedge victims in the country. There’s daylight at the end of the tunnel now — and no more darkness at noon for hedge victims,” he said.

The move was also welcomed by the Conservatives. The party’s local government spokesman, Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, said: “After years of the Government hedging their bets and with about 10,000 high-hedge disputes around the country, these changes are long overdue. The Government’s shilly-shallying and reluctance to act only led to thousands of disputes simply getting out of control.”

The Bill is completing its final stages in the House of Lords, so the new measures could be in place next year. MPs representing suburban seats say complaints over high hedges are the number one issue among constituents.

Suburbia's king of hedges with a head for heights

TO THOSE who love it, the Leyland Cypress, more commonly known as Leylandii, is the king of hedges: a living wall, easy to clip, a haven for wildlife and able to be grown in almost any soil. Nor does it much mind air pollution and salt spray.

The problem for those who loathe it, especially when it is used as hedging or screening, is that it can grow almost 1 metre (3ft) a year to a height of over 30 metres (100ft) when mature. But the king of hedges is susceptible to several diseases that are becoming more common. There are two types of canker, which sound thoroughly unpleasant: needle blight, which would certainly let a bit more light through; and two types of root rot which usually result in felling.

X Cupressocyparis leylandii (X denoting a hybrid) was bred from two American species from distinct genera in 1888. For the purist, the pronunciation is lay-land-y-ai, although those who have them on the other side of the garden fence blocking out the sunshine might well call them something altogether more colourful.

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