← All guides · Rules & paperwork · Updated July 2026

High hedges, neighbour law, and the Broadstairs £650 fee.

Broadstairs' Victorian and Edwardian terrace stock, Gladstone Road, Norfolk Road, Rectory Road, the four-floor semis behind Stone Road, pushes the 2m High Hedges threshold routinely. Mature laurel, privet and Leylandii on those plots hit 4-6m fairly regularly. Between the boundary law you already have, and Part 8 of the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 you may not know about, there are usually two ways out of a neighbour hedge dispute. Here is how they actually work.

What Part 8 of the ASB Act actually covers

The Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003, Part 8 gives local councils the power to intervene in domestic hedge disputes where an evergreen or semi-evergreen hedge is causing an adjoining owner reasonable loss of light or amenity. It came into force in England on 1 June 2005. The framework has four conditions, all of which must be met before a complaint can be lodged:

The hedge is formed of two or more shrubs or trees, forming a line.
It is wholly or predominantly evergreen or semi-evergreen. Fully deciduous hedges (hawthorn, blackthorn, inland beech) are outside the scheme. Leylandii, laurel, privet, holm oak, escallonia: all inside.
It is over 2 metres above ground level.
The complainant must show they have made reasonable attempts to resolve the issue directly before escalating to the council. This one gets people rejected at the door, TDC will send the complaint back if you cannot demonstrate a paper trail of trying first.

What is NOT covered

A single tree, however tall, is not a High Hedge (it may still be a nuisance under common law). A deciduous hedge is not covered. A hedge under 2m is not covered. A boundary fence, a wall, or a trellis with climbers is not covered. Complaints against Thanet DC's own hedges are not covered, that goes through a different complaints route.

The £650 fee: and why £350 is stale

Older webpages and outdated hedge-cutter marketing sites still quote £350 as the TDC High Hedges complaint fee. That figure has been superseded. The current fee for a formal High Hedges complaint to Thanet District Council is £650 (2026 figure, confirmed against TDC's current published schedule). If a page you're reading says £350, it hasn't been updated in some years.

The complainant pays the fee up front, not the hedge owner. In principle the fee can be reimbursed on hardship grounds; in practice most complainants pay it. TDC then assesses the complaint against a five-part test set out in the government's High Hedges Complaints guidance, action height, orientation to the affected property, the extent of light loss measured against a hedge two-thirds of the actual height, the reasonableness of the complaint, and whether an amenity notice is proportionate.

What happens if TDC finds against the hedge owner

If the council issues a formal remedial notice requiring reduction, the hedge owner has to comply by a specified compliance deadline (usually 8-12 weeks). Failure to comply is a criminal offence, fine on summary conviction of up to £1,000, plus the council can enter the property, do the work themselves, and bill the owner for costs. Appeals go to the Planning Inspectorate within 28 days.

What the notice does not allow: reduction of the hedge below 2m. That is a hard floor in the guidance. In practice most orders are for reduction to somewhere between 2.5m and 3.5m depending on aspect and light angles.

Boundary law: your existing right without any of that

Separate from the High Hedges route, and often forgotten: you already have the common law right to cut back a neighbour's overhanging vegetation to the boundary line. Any branches, foliage or roots crossing into your airspace or ground can be cut back to the vertical plane of the boundary, without asking permission, without giving notice.

Three caveats worth knowing:

You can only cut back to the boundary, no further, and you cannot lean over and cut on the neighbour's side.
The arisings technically belong to the hedge owner. Practically that means offer them back; the standard hedge owner's response is "please dispose of them for me". A polite conversation avoids a tit-for-tat argument.
You cannot exercise this right in a way that kills the hedge. If cutting to the boundary would go into the plant's structure and destabilise or kill it, you need agreement or an ASB Act notice, not a self-help cut.

For most Gladstone Road-type disputes, a leylandii or laurel that has swelled 60-90cm over the boundary and is shading the terrace garden two doors down, the boundary cutback resolves the issue immediately. It costs the complaining side one afternoon's work, or one contractor's morning. No fee, no council, no formal escalation.

Where the Broadstairs hotspots are

The pattern I see in the diary:

Gladstone Road, Norfolk Road, Rectory Road and the four-floor Victorian terrace belt, mature back-garden Leylandii, often planted in the 1980s, now 4-6m and blocking the west light off the terrace behind. Classic High Hedges profile.
Stone Bay and Pierremont villa gardens, mature laurel and holm oak on the boundary between two large gardens; disputes here are usually about privacy view corridors, not light. Often outside the scheme technically (holm oak arguably borderline evergreen); typically resolved by negotiation.
Reading Street and St Peter's inland fringe, mostly deciduous hedgerows, so outside the ASB Act entirely; standard boundary law applies.
North Foreland Estate, high-value plots with private covenants that often specify maximum hedge heights in the deeds, running alongside (not replacing) the statutory rules.

How I approach a dispute case

If you call me because a neighbour hedge is affecting you, my usual first move is not "help you file an ASB Act complaint". It is:

Walk the boundary with you. Measure heights. Check whether the hedge is even inside the scheme. A lot of "high hedge" complaints turn out to be about a hedge that is 1.9m and a fence that is not the hedge.
Establish what a boundary cutback would look like and what it would cost. In most cases this is the fastest, cheapest resolution and does not need the neighbour's agreement.
If the hedge is on the wrong side of the boundary and the neighbour is unreachable or refusing, then talk about the Part 8 route, £650 fee, 3-6 month timeline, formal outcome.
If the hedge is on your side of the boundary and a neighbour is threatening to complain against you, honest advice about whether the complaint would succeed. Sometimes the right answer is to reduce voluntarily; sometimes it is to hold ground.

Hedge dispute you want a straight answer on?

Photo of the hedge from your side of the boundary, plus a rough height and species if you know them. hello@broadstairshedges.co.uk or 07763 100 477. I'll tell you whether it is a boundary-cutback job, an ASB Act case, or a "have a conversation first" situation. No charge for that first read.

Sources: Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003, Part 8; Department for Communities and Local Government "High Hedges Complaints: Prevention and Cure" (updated statutory guidance); Thanet District Council fees schedule 2026/27 (High Hedges complaint fee £650); Delaware Mansion Estates v Westminster City Council on branch overhang and boundary rights; Historic England Broadstairs Conservation Area boundary maps.