Neighborly Gardening

Well, not so neighborly after all

Nurse gets restraining order for 'obsessive hedge cutting'

A nurse who made her neighbors' lives hell by her "obsessive hedge cutting" has received a restraining order. For three years Susan Sheldrick, 45, tormented her wealthy neighbours with a bizarre campaign of manic gardening that went on from dawn until dusk. Over the years she reduced the height of the dividing front hedge by five feet and the back one by six, shouting: "We can see you now!"

Sheldrick and her businessman husband Nigel, 49, were found guilty of harassment after shattering the peace in the neighborhood where they lived in a £425,000 detached house. Magistrates heard how a dispute with their next door neighbors, company boss Justin Jackson and his wife Heather, culminated in Sheldrick using strimmers and shears to lop down the hedge, inch by inch, in the middle of the night.

The campaign of harassment also included Nigel Sheldrick and their sons vacuuming the family car at 1am, shouting abuse and Mrs Sheldrick singing loudly under their neighbors' window late at night. Tension between the well-to-do residents in Harrogate, North Yorks, began when the Jacksons applied to extend their five-bedroom bungalow to build an orangery.

Harrogate magistrates' court heard that things turned uglier after the Sheldricks' giant schnauzer escaped into the Jacksons' garden and pinned their daughter to her front door. The couple were handed an indefinite restraining order, forbidding the Sheldricks from harassing their neighbors - and limiting hedge cutting to once a month between 8am and 4pm. They denied causing a problem and will appeal. They also plan to move to a small-holding in Lincolnshire.

Painting garden fence leads to criminal damage fine

A couple who painted their side of a garden fence have been handed an £80 fine by police for "criminal damage", after a neighbor complained. Officers turned up at the home of Kay Balsdon and her partner Chris Bates and threatened them with prosecution if they refused to accept the on-the-spot fine. A next-door neighbor had claimed that Mr Bates' paint job, in a shade called "Forest Green", had ruined the finish on her side of the 6ft fence which was painted a different color.

Mrs Balsdon, 47, said: "When the police turned up at my door I thought it was a prank. I just couldn't believe it - I was expecting Jeremy Beadle to pop out at any moment." The petrol station cashier from Aldershot, Hants, added: "The fence was getting a bit dry and starting to warp so we thought we'd paint it green to match the rest of the fences in our garden. We were very careful and used a brush rather than a sprayer, but a little bit had got through the fence.

Photo from here.

"The woman next door got very upset and started banging on the door and creating a scene. "She called the police who said they were going to issue a fine, and warned us that if we didn't pay we would end up going to court and end up paying a lot of money. So we just paid." Mr Bates, 29, a postman, said: "I'm amazed that there was such a waste of police time over something so petty.

"When the police arrived I was speechless for 20 minutes. And when it had finally sunk in I felt angry that I was being punished for something so stupid." Hampshire Police said it had decided to refund the fine. A spokesman said: "The officers gave this a lot of consideration and decided that this was the best way to deal with it. However, we have now reviewed the case and the fine will be rescinded and refunded."