Thank you so much, @Wild_Violet, yes, time really flies! I am so glad your efforts have helped. I read through your thread and could understand how precious a feeling of privacy is in your own garden, or at least parts of it, especially if what you thought was a private area changes to somewhere where you feel you are stepping out on stage every time you go outside.
The lattice screen sounds ingenious. I realise there are pros and cons, but it does sound as though the pros outweigh the cons! Plants always seem to take so long to grow in these situations, but I am impressed by your determination to tackle the issue from all angles, as it were.
It is a bit complicated, but it seems as though stealth building-work has been going on by one of my boundaries. The building work started off indoors (constant hammering and drilling), and it is now apparent that a tiny, obscured loo window has become a massive glass door that is in constant, noisy use, right opposite my back door, with people hanging around it every twenty minutes or so, smoking - and the smoke blows right into my face, it is really off-putting. It used to be a student house, but I see different people hanging around for weeks, then no one, then people again. It is a bit strange and I am not hopeful things will magically improve, so I need to be proactive about it before the growing season really starts. x
Sorry to witness the demise of the forum. 😥😥😥😡😡😡I am Spartacus
@clematisdorset, that sounds like a problem for your local Council's planning department. Your neighbours can't just put in a glass door instead of a small glazed loo window without planning permission.
You should be able to check whether planning permission was applied for by going onto the Council's planning website and putting your postcode/address in. You should be able to see all your neighbours' planning permissions and whether they were granted or dismissed over the last few years. I check ours every so often, particularly when I'm bored and it's raining.
@clematisdorset Oh that sounds like an unpleasant situation. I’ve found the planning department in my area to be unhelpful - probably because they had granted permission to the development next door to me - even if the finished product was quite different to the original plans! You would surely know if your neighbour had obtained planning consent to replace a small obscure window with a huge glass door? If not, you might have more luck getting the development reversed. Definitely worth checking their website. It would depend how much space you have between your back door and this new door. I’d be tempted to put something solid in between as smoke will just come through any planting. I always fancied a walled garden!
I really do hope you can find out what’s gone on next door and somehow get your privacy back. x
'High hedge' legislation is aimed at fast growing conifer hedges, not deciduous hedges. You can let those grow as high as you like. A neighbour would certainly be permitted to cut the hedge back to the boundary, but if they tried to take the top out of my hedge without my permission there would be hell to pay.
Thank you everybody, some great ideas I had not thought of.
I know what you mean @Wild_Violet, about Planning Departments allowing things by stealth because original plans can be 'stretched' (for want of a better word). It is not fair on others like you who have to live with the consequences. Hopefully I will find out what is happening. I think a walled garden sounds very nice. I have tried growing thicker ivy to mitigate bonfire smoke next to another boundary and It only does so much in terms of filtering the smoke. A wall would exclude the problem of trimming hedging-type plants that might get too high, but would enable climbers to be grown...thanks for letting me piggy-back on this thread and for your help. x
Sorry to witness the demise of the forum. 😥😥😥😡😡😡I am Spartacus
High hedge legislation can apply to any type of hedge or tree, it’s not restricted to conifers. Any run of plants can be seen as a hedge, it will depend on the councils interpretation and the level of “nuisance” created
If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”—Marcus Tullius Cicero East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham
We used to have a house two doors up, that had a change of tenants every 3-6 months. What had been a three bedroom family home, became a house of multiple occupancy, with five bedrooms. On one occasion we know there were two beds in each of four bedrooms, and there were two shifts!! Eighteen tenants!! The comings and goings were a nuisance. The noise in the garden day and night. The landlord was raking it in, at the expense of the neighbours.
We joined forces with some other neighbours, and put a stop to the practise. Nice idea to house so many in one home, but the wrong type of neighbourhood.
Smoking was one of the issues, but there was little we could do about that.
It still has a regular change of tenants, but not so many, and not such a problem.
High fences just caused the noise to reverberate. We deadened the noise with bushes. It helped - but we've moved now.
Our hedges in our new garden are 7-8 feet high, on all sides, with the occasional tree even higher. We want to reduce the height, to allow more sunlight. However, being in a coastal village, the place catches the wind, even though we are more than half a mile from the sea.
The high hedges are staying!! We might even appreciate them more in hot summers, where they provide shade.
Posts
The lattice screen sounds ingenious. I realise there are pros and cons, but it does sound as though the pros outweigh the cons! Plants always seem to take so long to grow in these situations, but I am impressed by your determination to tackle the issue from all angles, as it were.
It is a bit complicated, but it seems as though stealth building-work has been going on by one of my boundaries. The building work started off indoors (constant hammering and drilling), and it is now apparent that a tiny, obscured loo window has become a massive glass door that is in constant, noisy use, right opposite my back door, with people hanging around it every twenty minutes or so, smoking - and the smoke blows right into my face, it is really off-putting. It used to be a student house, but I see different people hanging around for weeks, then no one, then people again. It is a bit strange and I am not hopeful things will magically improve, so I need to be proactive about it before the growing season really starts. x
You should be able to check whether planning permission was applied for by going onto the Council's planning website and putting your postcode/address in. You should be able to see all your neighbours' planning permissions and whether they were granted or dismissed over the last few years. I check ours every so often, particularly when I'm bored and it's raining.
It would depend how much space you have between your back door and this new door. I’d be tempted to put something solid in between as smoke will just come through any planting. I always fancied a walled garden!
if do it might need planning permission 🤔
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I know what you mean @Wild_Violet, about Planning Departments allowing things by stealth because original plans can be 'stretched' (for want of a better word). It is not fair on others like you who have to live with the consequences. Hopefully I will find out what is happening. I think a walled garden sounds very nice. I have tried growing thicker ivy to mitigate bonfire smoke next to another boundary and It only does so much in terms of filtering the smoke. A wall would exclude the problem of trimming hedging-type plants that might get too high, but would enable climbers to be grown...thanks for letting me piggy-back on this thread and for your help. x
East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham
We joined forces with some other neighbours, and put a stop to the practise. Nice idea to house so many in one home, but the wrong type of neighbourhood.
Smoking was one of the issues, but there was little we could do about that.
It still has a regular change of tenants, but not so many, and not such a problem.
High fences just caused the noise to reverberate. We deadened the noise with bushes. It helped - but we've moved now.
Our hedges in our new garden are 7-8 feet high, on all sides, with the occasional tree even higher. We want to reduce the height, to allow more sunlight. However, being in a coastal village, the place catches the wind, even though we are more than half a mile from the sea.
The high hedges are staying!! We might even appreciate them more in hot summers, where they provide shade.