Bolton Council Opened a High Hedge Investigation After Phil Lamey Said His Neighbor’s 10ft Evergreens Blocked His Hulton Park View. The Neighbor Wants Them at 15ft.

On the edge of Hulton Park, a stretch of historic parkland outside Bolton in Greater Manchester, a row of evergreens planted in the spring of 2024 now stands about 10 feet tall. Phil Lamey, 45, says it has taken away the view from his home. His neighbor, Richard Grundy, 61, says it gives him the privacy he wants on his own land, and he would like it to reach 15 feet.

Bolton Council has now opened a formal High Hedge Investigation into the row, a council spokesperson confirmed to the Express, which reported the story on Nov. 10. The council will decide whether the hedge is causing enough harm to require action.

Ten Feet of Evergreens Beside a Listed Park

Lamey moved into his home in Over Hulton in 2017 with his wife and two school-age children. The house looks out toward Hulton Park, which is Grade II listed and is believed to have been laid out by the landscape designer Capability Brown. The roughly 1,000-acre estate was bought by The Peel Group for about £8.5 million, and in 2021 Grundy bought a 10,591-square-foot plot of it from Peel for £18,000.

Grundy bought evergreen hedging plants in April 2024 and set them along his plot. Two and a half years on, they are about 10 feet high. Lamey says they block both his view and his sunlight, and he wants them cut to 6 feet. Grundy wants to let them keep growing to 15 feet.

Grundy told the paper that he owns the land and wants his privacy while he is on it. Lamey called him “the definition of a nightmare neighbour.”

A Shed, Six Fence Panels and an Earlier Order to Remove Them

The hedge is the latest chapter in a dispute the two men have had for about five years. Around 2020, a shed and six 6-foot wooden fence panels went up on Grundy’s land without planning permission, according to the Express. The council ordered them removed, and they were taken down between November 2022 and early 2023.

Brit Brief, which also covered the case on Nov. 11, reported that the panels had stood on a jetty by a fishing pond, and that Grundy said he “was shocked to receive the letter” from the council about the hedge.

Two Police Calls and a Poisoning Claim

Greater Manchester Police have been called to the dispute twice. Police confirmed they are aware of a 2024 harassment report made at the address by Lamey’s family.

Grundy, for his part, reported criminal damage after 10 of his hedges were allegedly poisoned last winter. He blames Lamey, who denies it. Police took no further action on that report.

Grundy said he wishes the neighbors would leave him alone and stop being “so pesky.”

What the Council Can and Cannot Order

Bolton Council’s Tree and Woodland Manager, Robert Hickey, wrote to Grundy last month about the complaint, citing Part 8 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003. That law gives councils in England and Wales the power to step into disputes over tall hedges between neighbors.

Under Part 8 of the Act, a high hedge is a line of two or more evergreen or semi-evergreen trees or shrubs that rises more than two meters, roughly 6.5 feet, above ground level and acts as a barrier to light or access. The owner or occupier of a neighboring home can complain if the hedge harms the reasonable enjoyment of their property.

The UK government’s guidance says neighbors must first try to settle the matter between themselves before asking the council for a complaint form, and that councils may charge a fee to consider it.

Government guidance on complaining to the council about a high hedge says the council must decide impartially, weighing the concerns of both neighbors and the effect on the wider neighborhood before reaching “a fair and balanced decision.” It also says the fee is not usually refunded even when a complaint succeeds, and the council cannot make the hedge owner repay it. If the council decides action is needed, it can issue a remedial notice telling the hedge owner what to cut and by when. The law sets limits on what that notice can do: it cannot require a hedge to be removed or cut below two meters. Lamey’s request for 6 feet sits just under that floor, so even a ruling in his favor could leave the evergreens slightly taller than he wants.

A notice takes effect at least 28 days after it is issued, and either side can appeal within that window. Ignoring a notice is a criminal offense that can bring a fine, and the council can send in its own crews to do the work and recover the cost from the owner. A notice is also registered as a local land charge, which means it stays with the property if it is sold.

Similar Fights Elsewhere

Hedges have been at the heart of some of the most bitter neighbor disputes on both sides of the Atlantic. In Devon, a five-year fight over where a Torquay hedge stood ended with a £108,402 upfront bill for the losing neighbor. In Illinois, Crystal Lake ordered a neighbor to pull 15 arborvitae blocking a lake view, then reversed itself a month later.

In Over Hulton, the next step belongs to the council. Bolton Council declined to comment on the specifics while its investigation is underway, and neither man has signaled he is ready to give ground. For now, the evergreens keep growing.

This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.

Image: don cload – CC BY-SA 2.0/Wikimedia Commons