After maintaining the hedge on a berm outside her Wellington home for seven years, Andrea Skews says the council now wants to charge her $850 a year to keep it.

A Wellington woman fighting to keep a hedge in front of her home will have to wait until the new year to know the fate of her beloved greenery.

Karori resident Andrea Skews is "heartbroken" after being given Wellington City Council's berm ultimatum – to either destroy her pretty hedge or pay an $850 annual fee.

However, she is still hopeful of changing the council's mind, with a petition containing more than 220 signatures of support gathered in a week. But she says no decisions will be made until 2017.

GOOGLE STREET VIEW The hedge on the berm outside Skews' Karori St home runs right up to the kerb, in the absence of any footpath.

Either way, the council has told Skews the greenery in front of her home is boxing in public land and must be chopped back 2.7 metres from the kerb by January to allow space for pedestrians and car doors along the street.

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But Skews, a local real estate agent, says it is sad she has been told to "butcher" a hedge that has been there for seven years.

LUCY SWINNEN/FAIRFAX NZ Skews shows off the metre-wide gap between the hedge and her home, which allows pedestrians to pass by.

There is no footpath on Skews' side of Karori St so the hedge runs down a few metres from each side of her house to the kerb and connects across the front.

The council has demanded she either remove the hedge, or push back the section that runs parallel to the kerb and pay $850 a year for an encroachment licence.

Skews says she wants to do neither. There is a gap in the hedge next to her house for people to walk through.

SUPPLIED Skews planted the hedge on the berm outside her Karori property when she bought it to stop rubbish from blowing on to it.

After seven years of the hedge not bothering anyone, the council only found out about it earlier this month after Skews exchanged a few choice words with a man who stormed through the hedge, despite her telling him about the gap.

She has maintained the berm at her own expense since buying her home and put up the hedge to stop rubbish blowing on to it.

"It means a lot to me to come home to a nice garden ... I've spent a lot of money on that front yard and now they are saying 'rip it down'."

LUCY SWINNEN/FAIRFAX NZ Skews says it is sad that a "silly old lady tending the hedge" was being asked to "butcher" it by the council.

Council spokesman Richard MacLean said the council did not want to get down and dirty with residents, but the rules must be fairly applied.

Though Skews was not treating the berm like her own front yard, she had effectively privatised a large strip of road reserve, he said.

"We've received at least one complaint from other residents that the hedge is forcing people to walk on the roadway."

Most "reasonable people" would not think it was right to use the gap in the hedge by her house, as it would look like they were wandering through private property.

"Unfortunately, she doesn't have the right to tell [council] what to do with a piece of public land. It's not her decision."

Karori Association chairwoman Lesleigh​ Salinger said the residents' group supported what Skews was trying to do, in principle, by trying to beautify streetscapes.

"Anything to make Karori look better is a good thing."

Onslow-Western ward councillor Simon Woolf said a commonsense approach was needed.

"If it is beautiful and not affecting a majority of people, this shouldn't be happening."

The council's encroachment policies were overdue for a review, he said. It should also consider selling berms in front of properties to residents.

Wellingtonians hold about 5800 road encroachment licences with the council, mainly for parking, access and outdoor living.

Under the council's bylaws, encroachment usually refers to garages and gates but can include a hedge if it is dense and excludes the public from the road.