Hi Macbirch,

it is said pittosporum screan master would perform as you require. However, my experience is somewhat limited as mine is only about 1m tall at the moment, quite dense, small light green leaves, nicely contrasting with bronze twigs.
You should find out what kind of conifer you have growing, if it is Leylandii it grows huge, wide and tall taking enormous space. We removed ours after 15 years, I was happy to regain so much space for new plants. Hope this helps

Thanks Meggs. I'm glad you suggested P Screenmaster as that's what we've just done. DH did a great job removing the conifer. I slept in that morning, I couldn't watch. No, it wasn't a Leylandii. We had one in a previous house. Very nice looking but it's on our list of "never again". We previously had a Skyrocket Juniper in that spot but that was way too thin and way too fast. So we decided no more experiments with conifers. We already have a couple of Screenmasters and although this space is a little narrower I thought it might work. It's reassuring to know someone else was thinking the same way.