Hedgerow removal notices and the right of objection

Removing a countryside hedgerow is controlled by notice rather than by application. Under the Hedgerows Regulations 1997 you serve a hedgerow removal notice on the local planning authority, which then has 42 days beginning with the date it receives the notice to respond. If it serves a hedgerow retention notice within that period, removal becomes unlawful. If it says nothing, you may remove the hedgerow.

The right of objection runs the other way from a planning appeal. There is no section 78 route, because there was never an application. Instead the Regulations give the person who served the removal notice a right of appeal to the Secretary of State against a retention notice, and the deadline is 28 days from the authority's decision.

How hedgerow removal is controlled

The Regulations apply to hedgerows that are 20 metres or more in length, and to shorter hedgerows that meet another hedgerow at each end, where they grow on or adjoin agricultural land, common land, protected land, or land used for forestry or for the breeding or keeping of horses, ponies or donkeys.

Garden hedges around a dwelling are outside the Regulations entirely, which is the single most common misunderstanding.

Regulation 6 lists cases where no notice is needed at all, including removal required for the proper management of the hedgerow, making a new opening in place of an existing opening giving access to land, works for national defence, and certain drainage and flood defence works. Those exceptions are narrower in practice than they look on the page, and the proper management exception in particular has been litigated.

Serve the notice on the right authority, with a plan identifying the hedgerow, its length, the reason for removal and the land ownership. An incomplete notice does not start the 42 day clock.

The criteria that make a hedgerow important

A hedgerow may only be made the subject of a retention notice if it is important. That means it is at least 30 years old and meets at least one of the criteria in Schedule 1 to the Regulations.

The criteria fall into two groups. The archaeology and history group covers things like marking a pre-1850 parish or township boundary, being part of a field system predating the Inclosure Acts, containing or being associated with a scheduled monument or a recorded archaeological feature, or forming part of the boundary of a pre-1600 estate.

The wildlife and landscape group counts woody species numbers, associated features such as banks, walls, ditches and standard trees, connection to other hedgerows and woodland, and the presence of species protected or listed under the relevant wildlife legislation.

A retention notice must specify each criterion that the authority says applies. That requirement is your first line of attack on appeal, because a notice that asserts importance without identifying the criteria is deficient.

Serving a removal notice and the response period

Diary the 42 days from the date the authority received the notice, not the date you posted it, and get an acknowledgement in writing.

During that period the authority will consult the parish council and will usually inspect. It may also ask for an extension, which you can agree or refuse. Refusing is sometimes the right answer where the removal is tied to a works programme, but it tends to produce a retention notice served on incomplete information, so weigh it.

If the 42 days pass with no retention notice, the removal may proceed. Keep the evidence of service, the acknowledgement and the date, because that paperwork is your defence if the removal is later questioned.

Grounds on which retention is required

The authority's judgement is binary in form and evaluative in substance. Either the hedgerow is important under Schedule 1 or it is not.

The arguments that succeed on appeal tend to be factual. Whether the vegetation is a hedgerow at all, rather than scrub or a line of trees, is a live question because the term is not defined in the Regulations. Whether the hedgerow is 30 years old is evidential, and historic mapping is the usual proof. Whether a named criterion is actually met, measured properly, is where most appeals are decided.

Woody species counts are a good example. The criterion depends on the number of species in a defined length of hedgerow, so the survey method, the length surveyed and the species list all matter, and a count made from a vehicle window will not survive scrutiny. A Preliminary Ecological Appraisal by a suitably qualified ecologist is the sensible starting point where the wildlife criteria are in play.

Challenging a retention notice

The appeal goes to the Secretary of State, is handled by the Planning Inspectorate, and must be made within 28 days of the date of the authority's decision. The inspector may dismiss the appeal, quash the notice, or modify it so that part of the proposed removal can proceed.

A retention notice is not time limited. It stands until it is withdrawn by the authority, quashed on appeal, or superseded by a fresh removal notice that attracts no retention notice. So doing nothing is not a strategy. If the hedgerow matters to your scheme, appeal or serve a fresh notice with better evidence.

Reading how inspectors have approached comparable hedgerow decisions is worth the time before you settle the grounds, and the discipline described in using appeal decisions in a planning application applies here as well, including the point that decisions are indicative rather than binding.

Offences and replanting requirements

Removing an important hedgerow in contravention of the Regulations is a criminal offence prosecuted in the magistrates' court. Beyond the fine, the authority may serve a replacement notice requiring a new hedgerow to be planted, and a replacement hedgerow is treated as important for 30 years from planting. A right of appeal attaches to a replacement notice too.

That 30 year clock is the part clients rarely anticipate. An unlawful removal can leave the site with a protected hedgerow on the same line for a generation.

Evidence to gather before serving a notice

Six things, collected before the notice goes in:

1. Historic Ordnance Survey mapping, enclosure and tithe maps, to establish age and boundary function.
2. A species survey along the hedgerow in the correct season, recorded by 30 metre lengths.
3. Photographs of associated banks, ditches, walls and standard trees.
4. A plan showing connections to other hedgerows, woodland and ponds.
5. A note of any records from the local environmental records centre or the historic environment record.
6. The removal rationale, in planning and operational terms.

Where the hedgerow sits inside a development site, it is also a biodiversity unit on the statutory metric, so losing it has a cost in the Biodiversity Net Gain Assessment as well as under the Regulations. Retaining and enhancing a hedgerow line is usually the least costly route to the ten per cent, and the planting is normally secured through a Landscape Strategy.

In Wales the Regulations apply with a separate appeal route to the Welsh Ministers, so check the Welsh guidance rather than assuming the English procedure.

To see which supporting documents a scheme affecting hedgerows is likely to need, browse all 66 PlanScope report types.

This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.