A ROW broke out after a resident tried to stop the council trimming down some hedgerows.

Suzanne Redwood stood in the way of the tractor trimming the hedgerows, expressing her anger at her view being ruined.

Christchurch resident Ms Redwood said: “The hedgerows protect us from the noise and from the view. Who wants to look out their front door and see McDonald’s?

“They said they were told to cut it to six foot. From here, that’s no more than two foot.

“I came out and asked them to stop work until they got confirmation. They stopped until I walked away then carried on again and destroyed the rest of it, so I went and stood in front of them.

“It’s only a hedgerow but it stops a lot of the noise from the road. Now they have exposed all the houses along here. The hedgerow was a divide between us and the industrial estate.”

Ms Redwood said she’s lived in Somerford Road for 15 years and the council has never touched the hedgerow before.

She has demanded compensation from the council, stating her house “wasn’t like this when I bought it”.

“That isn’t a trim, that is a destruction of a hedgerow,” she continued.

“I can understand that it does need a trim. But there’s a difference between a trim and hacking it down to nothing.”

Councillor Simon McCormack said at the scene: “The idea was to cut it down and in the next few years it will grow back thicker, and you’ll get less noise from the road.

“With this machinery, I think we only have one or two in BCP Council, so we can’t really keep pulling it off jobs.

“I was trying to get her to send me an email to complain rather than getting herself wound up on her doorstep. It was a case of it needed to be done.”

Earlier in the year, Ms Redwood created a petition to close McDonald’s car park at night because she couldn’t cope with the noise.

“(Ms Redwood) keeps referring back to the McDonald’s situation. Before I had the meeting with McDonald’s I was getting complaints regularly,” Cllr McCormack continued.

“In the last two or three months I haven’t had any complaints from anyone. So when (the hedge trimming) came up, I thought ‘I can’t see how this will make a difference’.”

A BCP Council spokesperson said: “This work was needed to maintain the hedge as the lowest parts of the hedge were dying. Topping it off will ensure it becomes strong, which is good for its purpose and for wildlife, promoting healthy growth once more.

“Any work we undertake is communicated to ward councillors and the work on this hedgerow was timed to avoid bird nesting season which is from March onwards. While we are aware the hedge may be low in places, it will now be left to regenerate new growth from the bottom, which will strengthen it and over a period of time, enable it to thrive.”