The Court refused the applicant's Part 2A application to prune a neighbouring Murraya hedge, finding that while the hedge partially obstructed an eastern ocean view, the obstruction was moderate at most when assessed against the totality of the view from the dwelling, which included an expansive uninterrupted primary view of Malabar Bay. Applying the Haindl v Daisch principle that 'a view' refers to the totality of what can be seen from the viewing location rather than individual slices, and the Tenacity qualitative scale, the Court held the threshold of 'severe' obstruction required by s 14E(2) was not met. The Court also confirmed, following Wisdom v Payn and Steber v Job, that Part 2A applied to the hedge even though most trees were below 2.5 metres at the hearing date, as they had previously exceeded that height and were likely to do so again before next pruning.
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