A widower is challenging a planning decision after being denied permission to replace his towering Leylandii hedge with a fence. Dr Mike Ralph, a retired engineer from New Street, Ledbury, sought approval last autumn to swap his 12-foot-high hedge for fencing. However, in April, county planners rejected his application, citing that the proposed fence would “detract from the character and appearance of the locality.”
The situation grew more complicated when, shortly before the decision, Dr Ralph—while on holiday in Italy—was pressured to accept a six-foot fence height instead of the originally requested eight feet. This demand came despite his prior agreement to the lower height, which he highlights in his appeal to the Planning Inspectorate as “completely unreasonable.”
The Leylandii hedge, planted in the 1970s alongside his dormer bungalow, has become an integral part of the property’s landscape. Last year, following concerns from the council’s public realm contractors, Balfour Beatty, Dr Ralph was instructed to trim the hedge back to the property boundary clear of the pavement. Yet, Leylandii’s growth habits mean it must retain new growth to survive, causing it to continue expanding.
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Dr Ralph laments the hedge’s current state: “Now the roadside looks ugly and it will never recover.” Although his intention was to enhance the area’s visual appeal, he also wishes to maintain the hedge’s noise and visual screening benefits.
The Planning Inspectorate aims to resolve such appeals within ten weeks, but they note that only one in three appeals succeed.