A PENSIONER from North Nibley has become the first person in the country to benefit from new legislation which gives householders the backing of the law if their neighbours' hedges grow too high.

John Machin, of Warren Croft, received a letter last week informing him that Stroud District Council, under legislation introduced on June 1 as part of the Anti-social Behaviour Act, had ordered his neighbours to reduce the height of their hedge to a maximum of ten feet.

Failure to comply with the order may result in prosecution or a fine. Mr Machin has been battling with his neighbours about their hedge, which at one time was more than 20ft high, for more than 15 years.

"The view which I used to enjoy so much disappeared behind a huge towering wall of monstrous Leylandii trees," he told the Gazette this week, adding that the hedge also extracted large quantities of water and nutrients from his garden and killed off his plants.

Frustrated to the point of exasperation, Mr Machin, together with many other Leylandii victims and an organisation called Hedgeline, set about getting the law changed.

"It has taken a very long time to achieve and I could have done without the stress and worry it caused," he said.

"Along the way I was diagnosed with cancer and told that it will eventually prove terminal.

"There have been times when I doubted if I would live long enough to again sit in my garden and stare in wonder at the beauty of the view."

He says he now feels vindicated, if not victorious, because his neighbours have been given six months to cut the hedge and have 28 days to appeal against the ruling.

Mr Machin is, however, impressed by the speed at which the district council has acted with the new powers.

"By council standards this is pretty express," he said, adding his thanks to MP David Drew and the people in North Nibley and elsewhere for their support and encouragement.