by Ray George
“Landscaped front gardens with and without boundary hedges are an important feature of the Bassett Green Estate. This mixture of open and planted frontages reinforces the garden suburb character of the estate and for this reason the enclosure of front gardens with new walls and fences will be discouraged’*
The open-plan feature of the properties is in principle secured by the freeholder not including the land in front of the houses within the property leased. My garden stops about 2 feet in front of my house. It is merely lawful for me to enter on to the front lawn ‘for the purpose of keeping the same in good order and condition’. A well-sited shrub or tree may enhance the area as a whole. What clearly damages the area as a whole is if one householder plants a hedge to enclose the lawn. For good design it is necessary not only to look narrowly at ones own property but to view it in the context of its surroundings.
Along the southern side of Ethelburt Avenue, along Bassett Green Road and Leaside Way, we find the other type of frontage: the privet hedge, the plain green kind, nothing fancy like argenteum or aureum. This has survived well, there are hardly any instances where the hedge is missing or a different shrub has been grown. There does not seem to be a consensus as to how high the hedge should be. Are the very tall ones intended or have they just got like that? Privet should withstand ruthless cutting back in April.
*Design Guidance for the Ethelburt Avenue (Bassett Green Estate) Conservation Area, copies are free to new residents in the Welcome Pack, £2.50 to others from your Street Rep.