Hi, and thanks for the reply. Yes hedge laying would be the ideal answer. Only trouble is we live next door to the neighbour from hell, and we do not want to have visual contact with them for the next couple of years while the hedge re-establishes. I also suspect you are right in that it will be difficult to get the new whips to grow into the existing hedge. Anyway it has only cost a few pounds to try the experiment. I wonder if there is some other plant,shrub whatever that might be a quick fix ?.
Badger