Hedgerow removal and the Hedgerows Regulations 1997

Removing a hedgerow on agricultural land in England usually means serving a hedgerow removal notice on the local planning authority and waiting. The Hedgerows Regulations 1997 give the authority 42 days to decide whether the hedgerow is important under their criteria. Say nothing and wait out the period and you may remove it. Remove an important hedgerow without going through the procedure and you have committed a criminal offence, and the authority can require you to plant a replacement.

Which hedgerows the Regulations protect

Not every hedge is covered. The Regulations apply to a hedgerow that is 20 metres or more in length, or shorter than that but meeting another hedgerow at each end, and growing on or adjacent to land used for agriculture or forestry, land used for the breeding or keeping of horses, ponies or donkeys, common land, a village green, a site of special scientific interest or a local nature reserve.

The exclusion that matters most in practice is the garden one. A hedgerow within the curtilage of a dwelling house, or marking the boundary of that curtilage, is outside the Regulations entirely. That is why the hedge along a farmhouse garden can go without a notice while the identical hedge across the field cannot.

Hedgerows can also be protected by other routes. Individual trees within a hedge may be covered by a Tree Preservation Order. A hedgerow shown as retained on an approved plan is usually protected by a planning condition. Ancient and species-rich hedgerows adjoining woodland may form part of an irreplaceable habitat argument.

The importance criteria and how they are assessed

A hedgerow is important only if it has existed for 30 years or more and meets at least one criterion in the schedule to the Regulations. Age is a gateway, not a criterion in itself.

The criteria split into two groups. The archaeology and history group covers hedgerows marking a pre-1850 parish or township boundary, incorporating an archaeological feature, being part of or associated with a monument or estate recorded before a set date, or forming an integral part of a field system predating the Enclosure Acts. The wildlife and landscape group counts woody species in sample lengths, associated features such as banks, walls, ditches, standard trees and connections to woodland or ponds, and the presence of species protected under wildlife legislation or listed as declining.

Assessing this properly takes a botanist walking the hedge in leaf, counting woody species in 30 metre sample sections and recording the associated features. It also takes a documentary search: historic parish boundary maps, tithe and enclosure maps and the Historic Environment Record. Councils carry out the same exercise when they receive the notice, and they have the local records to hand.

Where the hedge is old, mixed and sits on a bank beside a ditch, assume it is important and plan accordingly.

Serving a hedgerow removal notice

The procedure is short and prescriptive.

1. Complete the hedgerow removal notice for the authority in whose area the hedgerow lies, describing the hedgerow, the length to be removed and the reason for removal.
2. Attach a plan at a scale that lets the authority identify the hedgerow on the ground.
3. Include the evidence that you are entitled to remove it, as owner or with the owner's authority.
4. Serve it and record the date.
5. Wait. The authority has 42 days from receipt.
6. If the authority gives written notice that it does not intend to serve a retention notice, or says nothing within the period, removal may proceed. The permission lasts for a limited time, so do not sit on it for two years.

Removal means grubbing out. Coppicing, laying and ordinary cutting are management rather than removal and are outside the notice procedure, although the cutting season restrictions still apply.

What happens if the council serves a retention notice

A hedgerow retention notice prohibits removal. It is served where the authority concludes the hedgerow is important, and it takes effect immediately.

There is a right of appeal to the Secretary of State, dealt with by the Planning Inspectorate, on the grounds that the hedgerow is not important or that there are reasons why it should nonetheless be removed. Appeals are uncommon and they turn on the botanical and historical evidence, so the survey work you did before serving the notice becomes the appeal case.

A retention notice does not require you to maintain the hedge to any standard, but it does mean the hedge stays. Where a scheme depends on the removal, the layout has to change.

Exemptions including access to land

Regulation 6 lists cases where no notice is needed. They include making a new opening in substitution for an existing opening that will be filled, obtaining temporary access in an emergency, work for national defence, preventing the spread of plant or tree pests, flood defence and drainage work carried out by the relevant authority, and highway works.

Access is the exemption most often relied on and most often misread. A new field entrance may be exempt where an existing opening of a similar size is closed up permanently, and that closure has to happen. Removing 40 metres of hedge to create a development access is a different thing entirely.

Where a scheme has planning permission, the interaction between the permission and the Regulations needs checking against the current wording of regulation 6 rather than assumed, because the exemptions are specific and a planning permission does not automatically authorise hedgerow removal. Get that confirmed in writing with the authority before the machines arrive.

Interaction with planning permission and ecology

Three other regimes bite at the same time.

Nesting birds are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, and it is an offence to damage or destroy a nest in use or being built. That makes hedgerow removal between March and August legally risky regardless of the hedgerow notice position, and it is why hedge removal is a winter job.

The Management of Hedgerows (England) Regulations 2024 introduced cutting and trimming restrictions and buffer strip requirements on agricultural land, taking over from the old cross-compliance rules. Those are separate from the 1997 Regulations and apply to management rather than removal.

Biodiversity net gain treats hedgerows as their own module in the statutory metric, with a separate 10 per cent gain requirement for hedgerow units that cannot be traded off against area habitats. A Biodiversity Net Gain Assessment therefore has to measure hedgerows separately, and a scheme removing a long length of hedge often needs substantial new planting to balance it. A Preliminary Ecological Appraisal should record the hedgerows as distinct features with their species composition, not as a boundary line.

Where a local nature recovery strategy identifies hedgerow networks in the area, that carries weight in decision-making, and the position on local nature recovery strategies and their planning weight is worth understanding before you propose removal.

Offences, penalties and replacement planting

Removing an important hedgerow in contravention of the Regulations is a criminal offence, prosecuted in the magistrates' court. The authority may also serve a notice requiring you to plant a replacement hedgerow, and that obligation runs with the land, binding subsequent owners.

Enforcement does happen. Parish councils and neighbours report hedge removal quickly, and a gap in a hedge is visible on the next aerial survey.

An illustrative example. A farmer wants to remove 60 metres of hedge to enlarge a field for machinery access. The hedge sits on a bank, contains eight woody species in a 30 metre sample and marks a boundary shown on the tithe map. It will be important. A better plan is to remove a 12 metre length for a new gateway while stopping up an existing opening of similar width, which may fall within the access exemption, and to leave the rest. That decision is made in the survey, not at the digger.

Where long-term protection of replacement planting is needed, a conservation covenant under the Environment Act 2021 is one of the mechanisms now available.

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This is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. Hedgerow and ecological survey work should be carried out by a suitably qualified ecologist. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.