JK Rowling is said to have drawn on personal experience to inform her bestselling Harry Potter series – but if she is ever to resurrect the beloved boy wizard The Curse of the Burgeoning Leylandii is unlikely to contend as a frontrunning title.

The writer has been blamed for traffic disruption in Edinburgh as contractors cut back the 30ft hedges outside her 17th-century mansion.

Temporary traffic lights have been put up during the works, which have been in place since Monday and have reduced part of the road outside the multi-million pound home to a single lane.

It has been claimed that the roadworks, which according to Edinburgh city council will be in place until Friday, have caused chaos, with major tailbacks building up on surrounding roads.

“It’s just taking ages for them to cut the bush back,” one onlooker told reporters. “It’s chaos around there. The lights are taking too long to change, especially on the side roads. There are long queues tailing back from the lights.”

The offending hedges in question are leylandii, or Leyland Cyprus, a fast-growing evergreen tree synonymous with suburban disputes that grow at around 3ft a year. The greenery is often used by homeowners hoping to screen their home to offer more privacy.

This is not the first time Rowling, 49, has provoked the ire of her fellow Edinburgh residents after she won permission in 2012 to build two Hogwarts-style treehouses in the garden of her home.



She was given permission for the £250,000 project by City of Edinburgh council despite objections from several neighbours who were already upset by other renovations around her home.

And in 2011, Rowling was granted permission to knock down the 1970s house next door to her own property, which she bought for £1m, to make way for a garden extension.

The Cockburn Association, a conservation watchdog, did not formally object to the development at the time but noted the “loss of a perfectly adequate and functional, recently-constructed dwelling from the city’s housing stock and we regret and question the sustainability aspects of this demolition”.

A City of Edinburgh council spokeswoman said: “Any individual or business may apply for a permit to occupy a public road for activities such as placing a skip or erecting scaffolding.

“This particular application was approved following a site visit to agree the scope of the works and necessary traffic management.

“Off-peak temporary traffic lights were allowed to facilitate the works, the safe flow of traffic and to minimise disruption for all road users.”