Man left furious as council hacks down his ivy because 'it made house look derelict'

A council has issued an apology after one of its workers chopped down a section of a resident's garden - claiming the vegetation 'made his house look derelict'.

Andrew Wheatley, 60, was taken aback when he received a text from his neighbour questioning why he was removing his ivy.

The Brighton resident rushed outside to investigate and discovered a council employee had already finished cutting away the foliage and was clearing up the debris.

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Andrew said the worker informed him that the local authority had received neighbour complaints about the greenery, stating it was 'making his house look derelict'.

Brighton and Hove City Council has acknowledged the ivy was 'wrongly' removed by the employee following a request for 'weed management in the area'.

Mr Wheatley explained that the council 'cut the main stem' of the ivy, causing it to perish completely.

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 spokesperson for Brighton and Hove Council 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 lamented the loss of the ivy, which had been a fixture since his move over a decade ago.

He said: "It grew down the side of my neighbour's driveway. He is really annoyed because now it has died off, so he has had to clear it all up."