A GREEN-FINGERED woman was left feeling hacked off when she came home from work to find her cherished hedge had been chopped almost to the ground.

Pat McFall, of Hereford Road, Blackburn, owns her home but lives on an estate where some properties are owned by housing association Twin Valley.

The association is trying to clean up the estate and in a bid to tidy up the area it chopped down her hedge, which, she says, she has taken great pride over for 14 years.

The company said it mistakenly hacked the hedge after being given permission by a neighbour.

Pat, who works at B&Q, Blackburn, said: "I was devastated because I have put a lot of effort into that hedge over the years I have lived here and now it is ruined.

"They should have got consent of both owners before hacking away at my hedge."

Pat says she has written four letters, two to Twin Valley and two to Blackburn with Darwen Council, because, she says, she wants compensation.

She said: "I don't want money or anything like that, I just want Twin Valley to come and remove the hedge because the state it is in at the moment is a total mess.

"There are just a few twigs spiking out all over the place, which looks awful.

"I take great pride in my garden and it has taken me years to make it into what it is and then, in one swoop, it is all ruined."

Chief Executive of Twin Valley Homes Phil Richards, said: "In a four-week period we have cut over 170 hedges in Whitebirk and Shadsworth, working with Bootstraps Community Gardening Scheme.

"The programme was to improve the appearance of the area and as a measure to reduce the opportunity for crime.

"As part of this, the service was offered to owner-occupiers as well as to tenants of Twin Valley Homes.

"Ms McFall's next-door neighbour gave her permission, but it was wrongly assumed that this party hedge -- a shared hedge -- was the neighbour's property and so included in the work.

"This was an error on our part and we accept that the boundaries should have been checked before the work was carried out.

"A letter offering sincere apologies has been sent to Ms McFall."