A council has apologised after a worker hacked down part of a man's garden – because the plants 'made his house looked derelict'. Andrew Wheatley was surprised when he received a message from his neighbour asking why he was getting rid of his ivy.
Andrew, of Brighton, went to check outside and found a council employee had finished hacking away and was sweeping it up. Andrew says the worker told him the authority had received complaints from neighbours about the foliage and it was 'making his house look derelict'.
Brighton and Hove City Council admits it was 'wrongly' cut by the council worker – after they received a request for 'weed management in the area'. Mr Wheatley said the council 'cut the main stem' of the ivy and it has died everywhere now.
He said: “My neighbour sent me a text saying ‘why are you getting rid of your ivy?’ and I said I wasn’t getting rid of it. “I saw this council guy and he said ‘we have received complaints from neighbours about it and it is making the place look derelict’.
“At this point he had chopped it all down and it was just sweeping up and clearing it into his bin. There was no point going at him because he was just being told what to do. I was really annoyed. There was no consultation. The council should have got in touch with me before they did anything.
“It just annoys me that they can go and do whatever they want – it is effectively criminal damage. We used to get bees nesting in there and snails so they killed a lot of insects when they did it as well.”
A Brighton and Hove Council spokesperson said: “Unfortunately it seems a well-meaning member of our street cleaning team did indeed remove this ivy. We had received a request for regular weed management in this area and on this occasion one of our team visited the street to carry out necessary work and finding only the ivy, wrongly took it to be something which needed cutting back.
“This was an error done with the best intentions, but we appreciate the upset it has caused the owner and apologise for this mistake.”
Mr Wheatley said that the ivy had been there since they moved over 10 years ago. He said: “It grew down the side of my neighbours driveway. He is really annoyed because now it has died off so he has had to clear it all up.”
