'Our neighbour destroyed 40m of hedgerow to put a new entrance onto a shared laneway without asking us or getting planning permission. What can we do?'

"Dear Mary Frances, I am absolutely furious about something that has just happened and need urgent advice. There's a laneway shared by several farms, including mine, and some of us have had access for years. However, one neighbour's farm runs alongside it, but they've never had a proper opening onto it - unless you count the shoddy, poorly fenced gaps in their hedge, which no one has ever treated as an access point."

"'Surely it's illegal to just bulldoze an opening? Should we engage a solicitor to make them repair the damage?'"

Several farms share a laneway, and some farms have had established access for years. One neighbouring farm borders the laneway but never had a proper opening, only shoddy, poorly fenced gaps in its hedge that no one treated as access points. Recently a new opening was bulldozed into the neighbour's boundary, causing damage and anger. The owner of one farm seeks urgent advice about the legality of creating such an opening and whether to instruct a solicitor to require the neighbour to repair the damage. The situation raises questions about established rights of access and whether informal gaps constitute accepted access.

Read at Independent