Sorry for going incommunicado: RL has taken over a bit this week!
So where were we? I think the Council was going to write to allotment knob. Well, according to the Council, AK is 'sincerely sorry' for the damage caused, and thought he was 'doing everyone a favour' by cutting it back. Wtaf?!
Anyway. He said he was willing to pay for fencing to improve our security / privacy, and to replace the 6ft wide hedge that has been reduced to stumps. Result!
I think the Council has probably told him that the police has been informed, and that it will become a police matter if it isn't sorted out as a civil one. Probably scared him into action.
So, that was Tuesday's email exchange.
On Wednesday, I got another email from the allotments manager to say that he had been speaking to their landscape contractor who will do the work (and reimbursed by AK). He thinks that cemented-in concrete fence post will do more damage to the hedge and its roots, and will impact on the chance of it growing back. After a bit of too-ing and fro-ing, we have settled on a green wire mesh fence approx 6ft high between wooden posts to be installed immediately in front of the hedhe. The remaining hedge will be trained along it to help fill the thinned out section (again, approx 6ft wide). Our neighbour a few doors along has a similar set up for security, and the hedge is now nicely growing through it.
We have asked for Berberis and / or pyracantha to be planted in the thinnest area to further improve security and privacy while the hedge grows back. We have a nursery near us that sells mature shrubs and trees so I'm going to explore that option.
mistlethrush was right about the hedge growing back: it is largely privet and so the stumps will regenerate in time. Will take an age though. Thankfully, we have a fence panel immediately in front of it on our side, and I'll see if we can get a trellis put on top of it to increase the height.
We thought about demanding replanting in that area, but if the stumps will grow back in time then perhaps we should just leave it? As has been mentioned upthread, the brambles are likely to regrow quickly anyway. It does look a mess though, and he still hasn't cleared away the branches he felled (note to self: chase that up!).
I still don't get why he though he could do all this in the first place! Apparently he thought that because the hedge was in a public open space he could do as he liked. Erm, nope!
No solution is going to be perfect as nothing will grow overnight, but I think we've got an acceptable solution in a relatively short time. People can be so quick to criticise councils, but our experience has been pretty good.
While the council finds the solution acceptable, we hedge till waiting for AK to agree. I have made it clear that we won't ask the police to mark the issue as resolved until we are satisfied. Hopefully that will prompt rapid agreement from AK.
I've seen him several times this week through the thinned hedge It would have been obvious we were there (shouting preschoolers!) But he resolutely kept his back to us. And so he should.