Can I remove a hedge in a field? Gaps, trimming and development

 

If you want to remove a hedge in a field, cut a new gateway through it or clear part of it for development, do not assume that owning the land gives you a free hand. Countryside hedgerows can be protected by several different sets of rules at the same time.

The practical answer depends on what you are doing. Removing a hedgerow is mainly controlled by the Hedgerows Regulations 1997. Cutting and trimming agricultural hedgerows in England is also controlled by the Management of Hedgerows (England) Regulations 2024. Planning permission, nesting birds, protected species, trees, biodiversity net gain and highway works can add further checks.

Short version: a hedge shown for removal on an approved planning scheme may benefit from an exemption from the separate hedgerow removal notice procedure, but that does not mean it can automatically be removed at any time or without checking the permission and the environmental controls first.

 

Is a hedge in a field protected?

 

Quite possibly. The Hedgerows Regulations 1997 apply to many countryside hedgerows, not just hedges which look old or especially valuable.

Broadly, the removal controls can apply where the hedgerow is:

• at least 20 metres long
• shorter than 20 metres but meets another hedgerow at each end
• growing on or next to land used for agriculture, forestry or the breeding or keeping of horses, ponies or donkeys
• growing on or next to common land or a village green, a Site of Special Scientific Interest, a protected European site, a local or national nature reserve, or land belonging to the state

A hedge within the curtilage of a dwellinghouse, or marking the boundary of that curtilage, is excluded from these countryside removal controls. If your question is about a domestic boundary hedge, see our separate page on hedges around a dwelling. If you are thinking of replacing a domestic hedge with fencing, see replacing a hedge with a fence.

One point causes a lot of confusion. A hedgerow does not have to be an “important hedgerow” before the notification procedure can apply. The age and importance test mainly determines whether the council can protect the hedge with a retention notice. A hedge which is less than 30 years old is therefore not automatically a hedge you can remove without telling the council.

 

Can I simply remove a hedge in a field?

 

Usually you should assume that you need to check the 1997 Regulations before removing all or part of the hedge. Where the Regulations apply, the normal route is to serve a Hedgerow Removal Notice on the local planning authority unless one of the statutory exemptions applies.

The council normally has 42 days to decide whether the hedge can be removed or whether it should serve a Hedgerow Retention Notice. The detailed procedure, the “important hedgerow” criteria, appeals and offences are covered on our dedicated Hedgerow Removal Notice page.

For this wider page, the important point is that partial removal counts too. Cutting out a length of hedge for a gateway, visibility splay or construction access is not automatically outside the rules simply because most of the hedge will remain.

 

Can I cut a gap in a hedge for a new field access?

 

Sometimes, but this is one of those jobs where three separate questions can arise: the hedgerow rules, planning permission for the access and highway approval.

The 1997 Regulations contain exemptions which can permit removal without a Hedgerow Removal Notice in particular circumstances. They include:

• making a new opening to replace an existing opening which gives access to land, provided the original opening is filled by planting a hedge within eight months
• temporary access needed to give assistance in an emergency
• access to land where no other means of access is available, or where the alternative is available only at disproportionate cost

These exemptions should not be stretched. “I would rather put the gateway here” is not the same as having no other reasonable means of access. If you are relying on an exemption, it is sensible to be able to explain exactly why it applies before the hedge is cut.

You also need to ask whether creating or altering the vehicular access is itself permitted development. Our Class B access to a highway page explains the planning side. Works to the highway, verge or vehicle crossing can need separate highway authority approval; the principles are explained on our dropped kerb and highway consent page.

If a new access is part of a larger planning application, show the opening, visibility splays and any hedge loss clearly on the submitted drawings. It is far better to have the hedge impact considered as part of the scheme than to discover afterwards that the access cannot be delivered as drawn.

 

Can I cut back or trim a field hedge at any time?

 

No. In England, the Management of Hedgerows (England) Regulations 2024 introduced a legal management regime for qualifying hedgerows on or next to agricultural land.

The headline rule is simple: do not cut or trim a hedgerow covered by the 2024 Regulations between 1 March and 31 August inclusive, unless an exemption applies.

Exemptions include certain work needed for road and path safety, human or animal health and safety, hedge-laying or coppicing during the permitted spring period, serious plant-health problems, specified statutory activities and work for which the Rural Payments Agency has granted written permission. There is also a notification route for certain August cutting connected with sowing oilseed rape or temporary grassland.

The current official guidance is on GOV.UK: hedgerow management rules for cutting and trimming.

The same 2024 regime also normally requires a two-metre green buffer strip measured from the centre of the hedgerow, within which cultivation and the application of fertilisers and pesticides are restricted. There are exemptions, including an exemption from the buffer-strip rules for land parcels of two hectares or less. That small-parcel exemption does not create a general exemption from the seasonal cutting and trimming rules. See the official buffer strip guidance.

This is separate from the 1997 removal regime. In other words, “proper management” may mean that a trim is not treated as removal under the 1997 Regulations, but the 2024 cutting restrictions can still apply.

 

What about nesting birds?

 

The dates above are not the whole story. Wild birds, their eggs and active nests are protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. It can be an offence to intentionally take, damage or destroy the nest of a wild bird while that nest is in use or being built.

That protection is not limited to a neat “nesting season”. The March to August period is a very useful practical warning period and is also the statutory no-cut period for agricultural hedgerows covered by the 2024 Regulations, but an active nest can be protected whenever it exists.

For development sites, this is one reason an ecologist may recommend a pre-clearance check immediately before hedge removal. Our protected species and planning page explains the wider wildlife controls, and the ecological survey calendar helps with survey timing.

 

If planning permission includes hedge removal, do I still need a Hedgerow Removal Notice?

 

This is the important exception. Regulation 6 of the Hedgerows Regulations 1997 permits removal where it is required for carrying out development for which planning permission has been granted. The official GOV.UK hedgerow guidance says that hedgerow removal in the course of carrying out development with planning permission may normally proceed without the separate prior notification procedure.

So if a planning permission clearly authorises development which requires a particular section of hedge to be removed, a separate Hedgerow Removal Notice will not normally be needed for that removal.

There are three cautions.

• the removal needs to be required for the approved development, not merely convenient or something you have decided to do at the same time
• the planning permission may contain conditions controlling retained hedges, landscaping, ecological mitigation, tree protection, construction access or the timing of clearance
• the exemption from the 1997 notice procedure does not wipe away other legal controls

The approved drawings and decision notice therefore matter. If the permission shows a hedge retained, or is silent about removal which is not genuinely necessary to build the scheme, do not assume the planning permission gives you the Regulation 6 exemption.

 

Does planning permission mean I can remove the hedge immediately?

 

Not necessarily. The 1997 Regulations do not themselves give you a general “clear it whenever you like” rule just because permission has been issued.

Before clearance, check:

• whether any pre-commencement or pre-clearance ecology condition must be discharged
• whether the approved landscape or ecology drawings require parts of the hedgerow to remain
• whether a Construction Environmental Management Plan or ecological method statement controls timing or working methods
• whether the development is subject to Biodiversity Net Gain and the approved Biodiversity Gain Plan or habitat proposals affect the hedge
• whether there are active bird nests or other protected species constraints
• whether trees in the hedge are protected or require a felling licence

If the removal is important to the scheme, it should usually be obvious from the approved plans and documents. Where it is not, getting the position straight before clearance is considerably cheaper than arguing about it afterwards.

 

Can hedge removal affect the 0.2 hectare BNG exemption?

 

Yes. This is an important check for small rural development sites. For planning applications made on or after 6 August 2026, development on a site of 0.2 hectares or less is normally exempt from mandatory Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG). However, that exemption does not apply where the development impacts an onsite priority habitat.

The same warning applies to the separate de minimis exemption. Ordinarily, de minimis can apply where a development impacts less than 25 square metres of onsite habitat and less than 5 metres of linear habitat such as a hedgerow. But it also requires that no onsite priority habitat is impacted.

This matters because hedgerows are one of the Section 41 priority habitat types in England. Not every field hedge will necessarily meet the priority-habitat definition, but many native countryside hedgerows can. The JNCC priority habitat description broadly covers boundary lines of trees or shrubs over 20 metres long and less than 5 metres wide, with gaps of less than 20 metres, where native woody species make up at least 80% of the cover. See the Section 41 list of priority habitats and the JNCC priority habitat descriptions.

So a small development site does not automatically escape BNG simply because the red-line area is 0.2 hectares or below. If removing or degrading the hedge affects a qualifying priority hedgerow, the 0.2 hectare exemption falls away and BNG must be dealt with. The same can happen even where less than 5 metres of hedge is removed, because the priority-habitat test comes before the linear de minimis threshold.

The official GOV.UK BNG exemption guidance confirms that the 0.2 hectare, de minimis and temporary-development exemptions do not apply where onsite priority habitat is impacted. An impact includes loss or degradation which reduces the biodiversity value of the habitat.

Also keep the regimes separate. A planning permission may mean that hedge removal is exempt from the separate Hedgerow Removal Notice procedure under Regulation 6 of the Hedgerows Regulations 1997, but that does not create an exemption from BNG. Check the BNG position before any clearance takes place.

 

Permitted development and prior approval are different

 

Do not assume that permitted development rights solve the hedgerow problem. The planning-permission exemption in the 1997 Regulations expressly excludes most development permitted by the General Permitted Development Order.

This matters in the countryside. An agricultural building might be capable of proceeding under Part 6 agricultural permitted development, or a barn might benefit from a change of use right such as Class Q, but a hedgerow which needs to be removed for the project can still need separate consideration under the 1997 Regulations.

Prior approval is therefore not a shortcut around hedge protection. Check the development right and the hedgerow rules separately.

 

Hedgerow trees can bring another layer of consent

 

A hedgerow can include mature trees. Removing the hedge does not automatically mean every tree within it can be felled.

Depending on the site, you may also need to consider:

• a Tree Preservation Order
• conservation area controls
• a Forestry Act felling licence
• protected species using trees, cavities or the hedge line

See our guide to trees and planning permission and our separate Tree Preservation Order page. Forestry Commission guidance confirms that trees standing in hedgerows may still require a felling licence unless an exemption applies.

 

A practical hedge-check before you start work

 

If you are planning to remove a hedge in a field, create a gateway or carry out substantial cutting, work through these questions before bringing in a flail, chainsaw or excavator:

• is the feature a hedgerow covered by the 1997 Regulations
• are you trimming it, or are the works capable of destroying all or part of it
• does a specific Regulation 6 exemption apply
• if not, has a Hedgerow Removal Notice been served and the 42-day procedure completed
• if planning permission has been granted, is the hedge removal genuinely required for that approved development
• have all relevant planning conditions, ecological requirements and BNG documents been checked
• are any hedgerow trees separately protected or subject to felling controls
• do the 2024 cutting and trimming rules apply at the proposed time of year
• has an ecologist checked for active nests or other protected species where necessary
• does a new access also need planning or highway approval

There is no single “hedge permission” which answers every one of those questions. The safest route is to identify which regime applies to the work you actually intend to do.

 

Relevant legislation and official guidance

 

• The Hedgerows Regulations 1997
• The Management of Hedgerows (England) Regulations 2024
• Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, section 1
• GOV.UK countryside hedgerow protection and removal guidance
• RPA cutting and trimming guidance
• RPA buffer strip guidance
• GOV.UK Biodiversity Net Gain exemptions
• Section 41 habitats and species of principal importance in England

Other Agricultural Sections

 

 

Remove a Hedge in a Field Page Created: 26th August 2026