Neighbours have been left fuming after being embroiled in a dispute about a hedge - only to find the owner being ordered to trim it by three centimetres after planners stepped in.
Residents living in an Edinburgh housing estate were unable to come to an agreement regarding how much they should cut off from a hedge - which spanned to the back of their gardens.
One homeowner was left so fed up that they even asked East Lothian Council to issue a High Hedge Notice on his neighbours, after claiming repeated requests sent to them to cut down the hedge were ignored.
However, to the shock of locals, the owners of the hedge at the centre of a dispute have been only been ordered to frequently maintain it after planners stepped in.
Following this, reports Edinburgh Live, this week the council issued a notice, requiring the owners to maintain the hedge - and to the joy of locals, introduced a maximum height at 4.34 metres.
They strictly added that the hedge needs to be maintained to the new height as soon as possible, as a recent visit measured the shrub to 18 metres long, and at a height of around 4.37 to 4.5 metres - meaning parts would need a three centimetre trim.
In a report to council, planning officers said that while the applicant argued the hedge blocked out sunlight to his home, the owners of the hedge had said it was necessary for it to have grown that long.
They argued that the hedge was required to be there as it gives them privacy from a first floor balcony built on the neighbouring property seven years ago.
Planning officers also confirmed the balcony and french doors were granted permission because of the "high boundary vegetation" which provided the occupants with privacy from an otherwise overlooking balcony.
The report said: "Accordingly, a balance is therefore required to be struck to enable the occupants of The Hawthorns to retain their privacy, while allowing the occupants of Muirfield Park to enjoy their residential property and associated curtilage. The height in which the hedge is required to be maintained will reflect this."
The notice set the maximum height at 4.34 metres ordering the owners to ensure it is no higher and kept at that height in the future.
