A retired motor mechanic from Merseyside has been left out of pocket after local authority intervention forced him to strip his garden hedge down to bare wood.
Clive Patterson, 68, handed over £280 to a professional landscaper to carry out the drastic pruning work on his property in Pensby.
The grandfather received correspondence from Wirral Council informing him the hedge was considered overgrown and giving him a fortnight to address the matter.
The complaint alleged that pedestrians were unable to pass the 7ft hedge on the pavement outside his home.
Clive Patterson, 68, handed over £280 to a professional landscaper to carry out the drastic pruning work
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Mr Patterson has tended the hedge since 1998.
The pensioner maintains he has never received any complaints about the hedge prior to this incident and insists the footpath remained perfectly passable.
“The pavement was clear to me, but the council said it was overgrown in a letter,” Mr Patterson said.
He expressed bewilderment at being targeted when similar hedges in the area have escaped scrutiny.
Wirral Council informed him the hedge was considered overgrown and gave him a fortnight to address the matter
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GOOGLE“There’s a hedge nearby and you can get by it, so I’m not sure why it’s been singled out. You could get past mine, it wasn’t blocking anything,” he added.
Mr Patterson attributes the entire situation to an interfering resident, describing it as “all because of some nosy neighbour”.
The council’s warning left Mr Patterson with little choice but to act swiftly.
“The council told me if I hadn’t sorted it in 14 days, they would do it themselves. I’ve done it as they’d only hack it to bits,” he explained.
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The former mechanic typically spends £400 annually having the hedge professionally trimmed twice a year.
Mr Patterson has requested a formal written apology from the local authority over the ordeal.
He also expressed a desire to speak directly with whoever lodged the complaint.
“I said if the person who complained could knock on my door and I’d explain it, we could talk it out,” he said.
Mr Patterson believes the council should redirect its attention to more pressing issues in the neighbourhood.
He pointed to the state of the grass verge outside his property, which he said has been reduced to “a muddy field because of cars parking on there, destroying the grass”.
The pensioner also questioned why other properties have avoided similar enforcement action.
“There’s hedges further up which are really overgrown. The hedge next door is well overgrown,” he said.
Mr Patterson dismissed claims that pushchairs could not pass his hedge as “absurd”, noting that many locals had praised it as “a lovely well-trimmed hedge”.
GB News has approached Wirral Council for comment.