Angry neighbour blasts ‘sneaky coward’ who complained to council about his hedge

“Everyone says how nice my hedges look and then we get a letter from the council.”

A man has hit out at a “nosy neighbour” who complained to the council about his garden after saying they could not walk past his house.

Clive Patterson, who pays £200 to landscape his hedge, said the situation was “madness” after receiving “stressful” letters from his local council.

Clive, who lives on Old Wood Road in Pensby, Merseyside, posted on social media website Nextdoor accusing the neighbour of complaining about his “overgrown hedges” and “being a sneaky coward”.

He said the local resident in question had not approached him about the issue. He told the Liverpool Echo: “I got this letter to say somebody has complained about your hedges being overgrown and they can’t get past it.”

Clive said this sparked confusion as he currently pays a landscaper £200 a year to trim his hedges – and he has been doing this for years. He believed another person’s hedge was the issue but Wirral Council has since confirmed the letter sent to Mr Patterson was correct.

Clive then phoned the council to get in touch with the person who wrote the letter. He added: “I want a simple apology, a written apology because I am really getting annoyed about it.

“I look after and I respect my property. I can say I look after it so why have they sent me a letter?

“It’s stressful. It’s very stressful. To think there is some nosy neighbour just causing trouble when they say they can’t walk past my house?”

He said: “Everyone says how nice my hedges look and then we get a letter from the council. I am sick of these letters coming from the council.

“All the neighbours I know walking past said ‘your hedges are perfect, the hedges up the road are overhanging and yours are not a problem’. I think it’s madness because you can walk past my house. I can say my hedge is cut.”

Clive said it’s not just hedges that he is having an issue with, the grass verge near his house is “getting churned up” from cars driving over it, something he believes is from parents dropping children off at the nearby community centre.

He said: “It’s terrible. If there was proper grass there, then people could walk on the grass.” He said, however, that he has been told he cannot put rocks on the grass to stop people driving over it in case it damages a vehicle.

Magenta Living, which runs the centre in partnership with the Kylemore Community Association, was approached by the Echo for comment.