Story shown here
What is the general feeling for this type of crime? Punishment justified? They can’t say they weren’t warned, as the boundary confrontation had run for aver a year prior to the hedge incident.
What do dopers feel about the fact the guilty female has to serve her sentence in the same high security prison as Myra Hindley . Hardly the same level of crime…
That seems to be the biggest issue in the organised protests outside the prisons.
Just interested in others opinions… Thanks.
Seems over-the-top, though I’m not sure what choices were available to the judge. The punishment is more about breaking the court injunction than actually cutting the hedge, demonstrating that everyone must obey the law, irrespective of how they feel about it.
I feel very sorry that they’ve ended up with a criminal record over what is essentially a petty reaction to a dispute between neighbours. It’s very sad that it came to this rather than some attempt at mediation. However, if their neighbours are to be belived, I’m glad I don’t live next door to them
I’m unsure why the woman was jailed - all of the articles suggest it was her husband that pulled up the hedge. As for where she has been imprisoned, I assume it is due to there being relatively few women’s prisons so she goes where there is space?
Just goes to show ya, if there is a court order stating “don’t do this” and you do it, you could be in serious trouble. 28 days is longer than I would have expected, but it sure as heck gets the point across, doesn’t it? A shorter time would have been more “reasonable” but may not have been much of a deterrent.
I’m assuming that the dispute centered around the ownership of the hedge. If it was clearly the Girlings’ hedge how could a court state Mr. Girling can’t trim it? If the ownership was in question, then he was wrong in cutting it down. I am a bit surprised that both Girlings wound up in prison, did the wife help him cut it down?
Apparently the wife helped to cut the hedge down.
I believe the hedge was ‘listed’ as it was old growth, much in the way an old building can be listed. This was the reason for the injunction. If they had remvoed thatch from a listed cottage I am sure the sentence would have been the same.
There is fear and loathing in England’s verdant suburbs. Actually it’s pretty NFN (normal for Norfolk)
THis story is so typical of a type of little Englander. What Jeremy Hardy calls the “patio falangist and moneybox listener”.
Bit much to get banged up with Myra Hindley though.
I have no problem with this. While prison might seem harsh I somehow doubt they’re sharing a cell with Ms Hindley. It’s not about disproportionate punishments for unauthorised foliage abuse, it’s about being punished for wilfully disobeying a court-ordered measure. I don’t have much sympathy.
Yep, I agree with Crusoe on this one. Was trying to keep neutral in the OP but generally find I can’t create any sympathy for them at all, in my mind.
I’m glad it happened. Although not totally related, perhaps it will help stop developers randomly knocking down listed buildings for their own means. Currently the maximum fine is set at £2000 for destroying a listed property. Once it is gone and you can proceed to build apartments worth hundreds of thousands in profit, it is hardly a deterrant. Perhaps harsher sentences, like this, will be.
I’m more astonished by the ‘calls in parliament for greater regulation’.
OF HEDGE SIZE AND DISPOSITION?
Truly, a doomed species.
Labour governments in a nutshell.
Nothing too pettyfogging to stick their noses into.
Listed?
If you own a hedge, why can’t you cut it down? If you own a cottage why can’t you remove thatch from it?
There are rules in the UK to preserve buildings with particular aesthetic or historical value. It’s unlikely you would purchase a property without knowing that in advance.
Generally you can. Unless it is listed, then other laws apply.
Listing Buildings is a way of protecting the heritage of a particular area / street / land from destructive over-development.
There are various grades available A, B, B2 etc… which all confer specific rights, obligations and privileges upon the property owner. If a property is A listed you MUST apply for planning permission to paint it, clean it, move any fittted furniture or decorative items (cornices, fireplaces etc…) Any works at all have to be approved by the local heritage society. And if the building falls into disrepair you can be forced, as owner, to finance renovation works. So the obligations are high.
But many people have requested their buildings be listed because it can bring wth it government funding and tax breaks for the owners too.
I used to own a grade II listed house (nothing special but in a conservation area) and I couldn’t even paint my front door without listed building consent.
Even the door knocker was listed.
However you know this full well when you buy the gaff and the nuisance value is reflected in the price (and you can get help financially with the upkeep).
They should have poisoned the hedge. Much less mess, legally.
Or not (darn my itchy posting finger!)
I have to admit this strikes me as odd. Door KNOCKER?! listed as historic? Geez. You Brits are wierd.
Why do they say he trimmed it? Hell, he CUT IT DOWN! Is this a nuance of the English language? Here in Minnesota, that photo showed what I would call a hedge that had been cut down, not trimmed.
I know contractors who do this with protected trees. Not good.
200 yo Sequoias on a beautiful site on the outskirts of Belfast, and the builder tapped a ring of copper panel nails into the trunks of several of the trees. This poisioned them enough to, eventually, lift the preservation order and allow them to be removed. This allowed more houses to fit on the site and made the developer more money. Bad, bad money-led people.
The trees were the most beautiful and valuable aspect of the site too, IMHO.
It was in a historic street in Winchester. The schedule for it is here:
http://www.hants.gov.uk/hampshiretreasures/vol04/page086.html
The wierd thing about living there was the number of tourists (usually colonials) who refused to believe that a 500 year old house could be a private dwelling rather than a museum.
Also; the street was often used for filming of period dramas. In each case the street would be prettied up by the film crew and when they had finished they would have to re-scruff the street.
here is a (very cool) virtual tour of my old street, featuring my old house (I’ve just found this and I am hugely cheered by it)
http://www.vrwinchester.co.uk/iview_java/source/20_wykeham_arms_kingsgate..html
There is serious concern at the rate by which hedges are being removed, and there is a direct correlation between the age of a hedge and the number of species of flora and fauna that live within it, or depend upon it for food and protection.
This was not a mere ‘trimming’, this was a listed hedge that had been determined to be ecologically important, the hedge was demolished by one pair of petty selfish individuals despite the order of a court not to do so.
The damage to this hedge has made the UK just a tiny bit the poorer, no sympathy for them, when you decide to buy into heritage then you become a custodian,and this is a responsible role, if you don’t want to do this then buy yourself a crappy Barret house on an anonymous modern housing development.
The Brits aren’t the only ones with this practice. I have never heard of the “listed” term. But, here in Lowell, MA in the good ole USA I cannot put screens on my windows because the local historical society forbids it. I have to have crappy indoor screens that allow bugs to fly right in.
So, my beautiful 8 foot tall windows must remain closed most of the time. 
However, the restrictions on construction of large buildings throughout the years has made Boston the great historic city that it is today, so I guess some good can come of this practice.
But still, no screens? IMHO, form should follow function.