Exuberant bamboo sparks chop sticks row

A stand of bamboo which has crossed on to her property, threatening to surround her house, has upset a Raumanga resident.
When Val Aberdeen and her late husband shifted to their Isola St property 11 years ago, a small patch of bamboo stood on their neighbour's section at the rear of their house.
As it grew near their boundary Mr Aberdeen used to cut it back and mow a gap more than a metre wide to the fence.
"Since he died six years ago many large thick shoots have popped up on my side. Now the new growth is as high as my house," Mrs Aberdeen said.
At age 76 she does not have the strength to bring the bamboo under control and doesn't have any family members well enough to deal with the  incursion. She is fed up with the problem.
"My husband was very proud of keeping his grounds in good order. This wouldn't be up to his standard and he'd be upset with me and that upsets me."
 The owners of the section, the McCloy Group,  have employed local engineering firm Cook Costello to manage the property on  their behalf.
Mrs Aberdeen's daughter Christine contacted Cook Costello and explained her concerns.  She says she was informed  the McCloy Group would remove the bamboo from its side of the property only.
Whangarei District Council said the issue of trees encroaching from a neighbouring private property was not something it had control over.
According to the Consumer NZ website, Mrs Aberdeen  may have a case, but it would involve her spending money to take the matter to court.
Consumer NZ says people are responsible for ensuring their own trees do not cause problems for anyone else. It also says that if roots or branches from a neighbour's tree encroach on neighbouring land, the neighbour can cut them back to the boundary line.
"If you don't want to do this yourself you can ask a district court for an order for the trimming or even removal of the tree," the website says.
But the expense involved ruled out the possibility of going to court, Mrs Aberdeen said.
"I would have liked to have come to some sort of an arrangement but they don't know me and they're not interested.
"Neighbours should work together and the cost of paying for a gardener to clear it wouldn't cost much." 
Consulting engineer at Cook Costello, Adrian Tonks, said aerial photos showed the bamboo did not exist  10 years ago.
"You have to ask how it got on to the boundary and we don't believe it necessarily originated from the McCloy Group boundary - it's growing on both properties."
Nobody lived on the McCloy Group section and a likely scenario of how the bamboo got there was by being dumped, he said.
Despite being under no obligation to deal with it, in the interests of neighbourly relations a "not insignificant" sum  had been spent removing the bamboo on the McCloy Group's side, Mr Tonks said.
"We're doing more than we need to and we've come to the party out of goodwill." 
Cook Costello had been given clear instructions to stay on the McCloy Group side of the boundary, he said.
"By going on to their property we'd have to fix a retaining wall and rebuild their fence, and who knows what else."
Mr Tonks said it was not correct to to use the media in such disputes  and the "correct avenue" would have been for Mrs Aberdeen to have taken the matter to the Disputes Tribunal, which wasn't very expensive. He said  it was a common issue rather than one property causing damage to another.
McCloy Group or McCloy New Zealand Pty Ltd is registered to Sharelene Judith Phillimore of Massey, in Waitakere, and Brian Swaine of Eleebana, New South Wales, Australia.