A PRICKLY five-year legal dispute over a garden hedge finally ended yesterday at a cost of thousands of pounds to both warring neighbours.

The battle over the giant hawthorn bush finished after an amazing 30 court appearances which ran up legal costs of around #20,000.

Gilbert Duncan and his wife Dorothy face a bill of around #15,000 after they cut the hedge belonging to neighbour Livingstone Waugh back in March 1992 after it began to grow through their greenhouse.

This action infuriated Mr Waugh, who claimed the hedge belonged to him and that the Duncans had hacked away his privacy.

The 12ft hedge divided the rear gardens of their homes in the upmarket cul-de-sac of Friarsdene in Lanark.

Sheriff John Douglas Allan ruled that the Duncans should pay all the costs between August 1992 and March 1995 with both parties being responsible for their own costs between March 1995 and December 1996.

Mr Duncan, 79, a former Ravenscraig steelworks manager, said: ''We will have to sit down and calculate the costs but it will be thousands of pounds.

''My wife and I have lived in this area for 20 years and we do not have any problems with any of the neighbours except Mr Waugh. We had never had a dispute with Mr Waugh before this incident and we have hardly spoken a word to each other since.

''Part of the problem with the dispute was that the title deeds did not make it clear who actually owned the hedge.''

The Duncans offered to give up any rights to the hedge provided each side paid their own legal costs but Mr Waugh disagreed.

Amazingly Mr and Mrs Duncan moved into the house next door to their #150,000-plus bungalow in February while Mr Waugh has put up a ''for sale'' sign outside his house.

During their thorny five- year dispute the hedge has grown back to the same size before Mr Duncan chopped around six feet off.

Mr Waugh was not in court to hear the final ruling on the marathon saga but his lawyer, William Renfrew, expected his clients costs to be around #2000.

He said: ''All this could have been sorted out if the Duncans had agreed to my client's original request to pay #500 to replace the damaged hedge.

''When all is said and done they cut something that did not belong to them and that has turned out to be a very expensive snip.''