MP presses for Leylandii chop

The fast-growing conifer - which can reach a height of 40ft - has provoked anger from residents across the UK, as well as causing disputes which have ended in expensive court action.

Now Stephen Pound MP will introduce a private members' bill on Wednesday which would allow homeowners to apply to have neighbours' hedges trimmed.

" Hopefully this will bring an end to the march of the grotesque green giants "
Stephen Pound MP

The current planning laws do not cover the hedges, and several previous moves to change the law have come to nothing.

But Mr Pound says he has secured an assurance from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister that the government will try to ensure that time is made available to get his bill through Parliament.

The High Hedges Bill would allow council's to cut down any hedges over two metres high which generated complaints.

Mr Pound said: "I am reasonably hopeful it will go through this time. I have spoken to Tony McNulty, a minister in the ODPM, and they are going to try to get it through. He said they would give me a fair following wind.

"Like me, he is a suburban MP and our surgeries are full of people whose lives have been blighted by people waging guerrilla war with Leylandii. It is massively important to the people who are the victims.

"Hopefully this will bring an end to the march of the grotesque green giants.

"It will bring hedges within the ambit of planning laws so that something that is 40ft high and plunges your garden into shadow would be subject to planning regulations."

'Nasty nuisance'

Michael Jones, founder of the Hedgeline support group for "victims" of neighbour's Leylandii, welcomed the prospect of legislation.

He told BBC News 24: "We respect privacy. We've got to have that. It's when it gets beyond that. There's a borderline over which it becomes a nasty nuisance and has a lot of deleterious effects.

"It's not a level playing field. All the law and all the rights belong with the neighbour. In extremis you can go to court, but that's a very expensive process and we don't advise anybody to do that."

But he added he had no gripe with the plant itself.

"It's a marvellous plant, it grows quickly and in the right place it can filter pollution, it can shield from noise, but in the wrong place, used as a weapon by an anti-social neighbour it can be pernicious."