A CONSERVATION expert whose trees left his neighbour with feelings of “anxiety and dread” has been ordered to chop them down.

Jon Simmons had been locked in a dispute with Geraldine Campbell over spruces growing between their homes in Helensburgh on the northern bank of the Firth of Clyde, 25 miles northwest of Glasgow.

Campbell said the 32ft trees shaded her south-facing garden and she complained to Argyll and Bute council, which ordered Simmons, 59, a director of the Helensburgh Tree Conservation Trust, to trim them back to 8ft.

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In a letter, Campbell said: “The anxiety and dread I feel on a daily basis is real. When I open the curtains in the morning, there is an overgrown hedge acting as another curtain which cannot be opened.”

She added: “I am embarrassed at people’s shocked reaction on entering my back garden and their dismay that it has got to this stage.”

Simmons, as he appealed against the ruling to the Scottish Government, said his Norway spruce trees were not a hedge and they benefited the local area. The landscape architect, who has given expert evidence on landscape issues at public inquiries, said the trees were home to a range of wildlife, including bats, tawny owls and woodpeckers.

In his appeal documents, Simmons said: “There has to be a balance between the destruction of valuable trees, which will materially affect wildlife habitat and our amenity, and the few extra hours of sunlight afforded to the applicant on certain days of the year.”

The ruling by the council was upheld and a Scottish Government reporter said the trees should be axed. Tammy Swift-Adams, who rules on appeals, said: “I find the scale of the high hedge severely out of proportion with the size of the high hedge neighbour’s garden.

“It is visually dominant and blocks out any view to the south of the property either from the garden or from the ground and first-floor windows which face on to it.

“Having seen the high hedge entirely filling the view from the windows of these rooms during my site visit, I consider the council’s assessment to be reasonable.”

Simmons has until February to carry out the work.