Hedgerow removal notices and the cost of getting it wrong

Removing a countryside hedgerow is free to notify and expensive to get wrong. The Hedgerows Regulations 1997 require you to give the local planning authority a hedgerow removal notice and then wait 42 days before removing a hedgerow that falls within the regime. There is no application fee. The cost sits entirely in the delay, in the ecological and archaeological evidence the notice may need, and in the consequences of removing an important hedgerow without permission, which is a criminal offence that can carry an unlimited fine and an order to replant.

Most rural owners discover the regime after the hedge has gone. The sequence below is the one to follow instead.

When a notice is required

The Regulations apply to a hedgerow that is 20 metres or more in length, or less than 20 metres where it meets another hedgerow at each end, and that grows on or adjacent to land used for agriculture or forestry, common land, a village green, a site of special scientific interest or a local nature reserve.

Hedgerows within or marking the boundary of the curtilage of a dwellinghouse are outside the regime. That exclusion is narrower than people hope: a hedge along a paddock beyond the garden is usually in, even where the same person owns both.

Several removals are exempt under the Regulations, including removal to create an opening in substitution for an existing opening, removal for national defence purposes, and removal to carry out development for which planning permission has been granted. That last exemption matters on development sites, because the hedgerow question is then settled in the planning application rather than by notice.

Cutting and laying are not removal. Normal management is outside the regime altogether, though the nesting bird protections under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 still apply, and the hedge cutting restriction that applies to farmers under the farming rules runs through the spring and summer.

The criteria that make a hedgerow important

The authority's job on receiving a notice is to decide whether the hedgerow is "important" under the Regulations. Two things must both be true. The hedgerow has to be at least 30 years old, and it has to meet at least one of the criteria in the Regulations covering archaeology and history, or wildlife and landscape.

Those criteria include:

• marking the boundary of a parish or township that existed before 1850
• incorporating an archaeological feature, or being wholly or partly within a scheduled monument or recorded site
• forming part of a field system that pre-dates the Enclosure Acts, or being part of an identified pre-enclosure field pattern
• containing a defined number of woody species, with lower thresholds where associated features such as a bank, ditch, wall or standard trees are present
• containing species listed in the Regulations as protected or rare
• running alongside a bridleway, footpath, road used as a public path or byway, where it also meets a species or features test

The species count is the one most often decisive, and it is counted over a standard 30 metre length. Where several lengths are proposed for removal, each is assessed separately, so a notice covering 200 metres may produce a retention notice for one section and consent by default for the rest.

Historic mapping decides the age and boundary criteria. County Series Ordnance Survey editions, tithe maps and enclosure awards are the usual sources, and a search of the Historic Environment Record will show recorded features along the line.

No fee, but a long lead time

The notice itself costs nothing. Supply a plan showing the hedgerow to be removed, the length, the reason for removal, and evidence that the land falls within the regime.

Then wait. The authority has 42 days from receipt to respond. If it issues a hedgerow retention notice, removal is prohibited. If it gives written consent, or says nothing within the 42 days, removal may proceed.

Three practical points on the waiting period:

1. The clock starts on receipt of a valid notice, so an incomplete notice simply resets it.
2. Removal before the 42 days expire is an offence even if the hedgerow would not have been important.
3. Consent by silence is real but hard to evidence later, so keep proof of posting and a dated copy of the notice.

Where an authority is minded to issue a retention notice, it will often ask for more information rather than refuse outright. Answering quickly is in your interest, because the 42 days do not pause for your convenience.

The consequence of removing without notice

Removing a hedgerow in contravention of the Regulations is a criminal offence. Proceedings are brought in the magistrates' court and the fine is unlimited.

The court can also order the person convicted to plant a replacement hedgerow. Separately, the authority can serve an enforcement notice requiring replanting of a hedgerow removed in contravention, and that obligation runs with the land, so a buyer can inherit it.

Beyond the penalty, there are costs that follow automatically. An archaeological or ecological assessment after the event, carried out to establish what was lost. Loss of the hedgerow units in any biodiversity calculation for the site, which may have to be made up elsewhere. And a damaged relationship with the authority that will be determining your next application.

A practical warning. Contractors clearing scrub for a new access have removed plenty of important hedgerows while the owner assumed the planning permission covered it. Where the exemption for permitted development is being relied on, check that the hedgerow in question is actually within the approved works.

Evidence to support a notice

A notice stands a better chance where it anticipates the authority's questions.

Include a plan at a usable scale with each length lettered, photographs of each length, a species list recorded over a 30 metre sample within each length, a note on associated features such as banks, ditches and standard trees, historic mapping showing when the line appears, and the agricultural or operational reason for removal.

Where the hedgerow contains mature trees, a Tree Survey to the relevant British Standard may be needed, since individual trees can be protected separately by a Tree Preservation Order. Where protected species are likely, a Preliminary Ecological Appraisal should come first, and any survey work involving protected species must be carried out by a suitably licensed ecologist.

Offering mitigation helps. A notice proposing a replacement hedge of local provenance on a new line, planted in the following season, reads very differently from one proposing removal and nothing else.

Interaction with biodiversity net gain

Hedgerows are measured separately in the statutory biodiversity metric, as linear units rather than area units, and the gain requirement applies to them in their own right. Losing hedgerow length on a development site therefore creates a hedgerow unit deficit that cannot be made good by planting a wildflower meadow.

Two consequences for budgeting. New hedgerow planting is usually the lowest cost route to hedgerow units, so retaining and extending existing hedges normally costs less than removal and replacement elsewhere. And the 30 year management obligation under the net gain regime applies to the retained and created hedges, which means a maintenance commitment rather than a one-off planting cost.

The Biodiversity Net Gain Assessment has to be completed by a competent person under the Environment Act 2021 regime, and the hedgerow baseline has to be surveyed before anything is cut.

Planning the work a season ahead

Work backwards from the removal date. Allow the 42 day notice period, a contingency for a request for further information, the bird nesting season from March to August when removal should be avoided, and survey windows for any protected species work.

That arithmetic usually means a notice submitted in the autumn for work the following winter. Trying to compress it produces the two expensive outcomes: a rushed removal that becomes an offence, or a stalled operation that holds up everything behind it. The same logic applies to any condition that has to be discharged before work starts, as our note on the cost of a pre-commencement condition you cannot discharge sets out.

This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. Browse the report types by category to see which ecological documents a site is likely to need. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.