The woman who finally won a 24 YEAR battle to get her neighbours 50ft Leylandii trees cut down

When Christine Wright first complained about the fir trees blocking the light from her garden in 1984, she hoped the dispute would be settled within a couple of weeks.

But it took nearly a quarter of a century - during which time she had two children and divorced the husband with whom she originally bought the house.

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In fact, the row raged for so long that the neighbours who planted the fir trees moved out.

But Mrs Wright is happy to have finally won a council order for the trees, some of which are more than 50ft tall, to be cut back.

"It will make an amazing difference," she said. "We will be able to sit in the garden in the evenings and have barbecues.

"I am quite a gardener and I used to grow vegetables but I had to stop and cover the whole garden with grass as nothing would grow."

Mrs Wright, who is in her fifties, and her then husband moved to the house in Frettenham in 1981 because of its views over the verdant Norfolk countryside.

But within three years their neighbours planted more than 100 leylandii trees along the 150ft-long boundary between the two properties.

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Mrs Wright, a special needs teacher and foster carer, watched in horror as the dense firs took root, blocking the sunlight to her property.

The huge trees grow at a rate of 3ft a year and can reach heights of up to 100ft, so they soon cast a permanent shadow over her garden.

Leylandii have become such a problem that - following a Mail campaign - legislation came into force three years ago which meant councils can force householders to cut them back or face a £1,000 fine.

But the laws were not in place when Mrs Wright first complained to her neighbours in 1984 and she has only just managed to get Broadland District Council to rule on the case.

The local authority has decided that the trees must be cut back, first to 36ft tall by September and then to 30ft by the same time next year.

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Mrs Wright said: "I am absolutely over the moon. We had a celebration when we found out and had some family round."

Her current neighbours, pensioners David and Christine Pursey, said they would cooperate with the council order.

A spokesman for Hedgeline, the national campaign group, said: "Unfortunately these disputes can take years to settle.

"It is very difficult for decent, honest and conscientious neighbours who don't want to take the law into their own hands to get things resolved, and it can take a long, long time."