Communities and Local Government

• Planning, building and the environment
• Planning
• Trees and High Hedges
• High hedges
• FAQs on high hedges
• Enforcement

Planning, building and the environment

Enforcement

Can you serve an Anti-social Behaviour Order (ASBO) on a hedge owner?
No. Councils cannot serve ASBOs on someone for having a high hedge. Inclusion of the high hedges provisions in Part 8 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 was a matter of legislative convenience only and has no other significance. The response to a high hedge problem is to issue a remedial notice.

What happens if the hedge owner does not comply with a remedial notice because they can't afford to do the work?
The Council should consider whether, in these circumstances, it would be in the public interest to prosecute the hedge owner.

Surely a remedial notice is only complied with when all the work specified has been carried out. Why, then, can the local authority not enforce the remedial notice when a single or isolated trees are left standing at a height greater than that required in the notice? If I built an extension without planning permission, the local authority would insist that the requirements of any enforcement notice were not met until every brick had been removed. So how are high hedge remedial notices different
Although the high hedges provisions in the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 might have adapted some aspects of the law relating to planning enforcement, nevertheless the two regimes are totally separate and differ in several respects. You cannot read across from one to the other in this way.

Importantly, a planning enforcement notice is issued because someone has not complied with planning controls and its purpose is to remedy that breach by, among other things, restoring the land to its previous condition. On the other hand, the purpose of the remedial notice is to remedy the adverse effect of the hedge on the complainant's reasonable enjoyment of their property. As indicated in the Remedial works above, we consider this would be satisfied if single or isolated trees were left that no longer met the definition of a high hedge under the 2003 Act.

If the complainant felt that the single or isolated trees left by the owner were still adversely affecting their reasonable enjoyment of their property, could the local authority take enforcement action eg by using their powers in section 77 of the 2003 Act to enter the land and reduce the remaining tree or trees as specified in the remedial notice?
Section 77 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 says that a local authority can use these powers where action has not been taken in accordance with the terms of the remedial notice. It could be argued that, as the action specified in the notice has not been carried out to the letter, the local authority may be able to enter the land and carry out further works to the hedge in line with the notice. In practice, however, before taking any form of enforcement action, a local authority would need to consider whether it was reasonable to take such steps taking account of the points made above and the circumstances of the particular case. 

What if the Council can't find the owner or occupier of the land where the hedge is situated in order to enforce a remedial notice - or to carry out any of their other functions relating to high hedges?
Under section 16 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976, Councils have power to serve a notice on certain people to obtain the names and addresses of the owners and occupiers of land, where they need this to perform any of their statutory functions. If people don't provide the information, or offer false information, they may be prosecuted and fined.

Can a warrant for entry to the land where the hedge is situated be obtained?
No. There is no power in the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 for Councils to obtain a warrant for entry to land either when dealing with a high hedge complaint or enforcing a remedial notice. Under section 74 of the Act, Councils may authorise officers to enter the land where the hedge is situated in certain circumstances and subject to at 24 hours' notice of intended entry. Council officers entering land under these powers would be able to take with them other people. This might include the Police in extreme cases.