A few weeks ago I wrote about the utter destruction that had been wrought on a country lane I frequently travel along. Nottinghamshire County Council had carried out some ‘maintenance’ – the first I have seen this year, and long overdue from a safety perspective. I pointed out, however, that this work went way beyond ‘maintenance’ and easily bordered on wanton vandalism.
I noticed I was getting a fair number of hits from the Council’s internal website – large organisations often have news harvesters looking for mention of their name, and then you get traffic once it is flagged.
Now, I also wrote to the Council to complain about what had happened. I got a polite response almost immediately, telling me it would be referred to the correct department for them to look into and to respond to in full. I went into some detail – providing photographs – and pointed out:
When [what I have said] taken into account **“ and allowing for ongoing concerns over disappearing hedgerows in the UK (not to mention the illegality of tearing them up) **“ you would expect any maintenance to be done with the utmost care.
Well, I have a reply from the Communities Department . This one doesn’t come across quite as politely as the initial response, and I get the distinct impression that they were not happy with my complaints. If anything, the detailed response is actually shorter than the one telling me it would be looked into!
It turns out that there is a considerable difference between a ‘hedgerow’ and things which are not designated as hedgerows (even though they look the same to me and also, no doubt, to the wildlife that chooses to live in them). At least as far as the Council is concerned. The Communities Department refers to ‘non-hedgerows’ with the euphemism self setting vegetation .
In response to my comments about the use of one of those tractor-mounted devices, it informs me that:
…it is not uncommon for a tractor to be used when cutting overgrown vegetation outside of Bird Nesting season.
Yes, I am aware of that. My point is how poorly operated these devices are. However, the important detail here is that the complex laws concerning hedgerows – so complex, indeed, that I suspect councils can twist the meaning as it suits them – means they can be mangled almost at will when the birds aren’t nesting (see Naturenet for more information on hedgerow laws). They go on:
I can assure you that no hedgerow or planted trees were destroyed during this routine maintenance, only self setting vegetation.
Hold on! This is a play on words. For a start, the ‘routine’ maintenance has pulled out or smashed down trees which must have been at least 5-10 years old and virtually eliminated the Dog Rose and Hawthorn amongst them. Most of the trees and bushes here, I can assure you, were NOT overhanging the road – and even if they were, there is a world of difference between cutting branches back and tearing whole trees out of the ground. Remember one of the photos?
Does this look like ‘routine’ maintenance? Where were they these last 10 years while the trees were just shoots?
It also doesn’t address what I told them about those damned tractors. They can be fitted with flails to deal with anything from cutting the bobbles off an Angora sweater to bringing down a helicopter. This one was clearly fitted with the latter: it was set to Maximum Death Kill Mode, either deliberately or because they don’t have the other parts available to set it up in any other way. They ALWAYS have the damned things set to this level of destruction.
And let’s not forget the fact that I have seen a grass snake, stoats, owls, and so on in the last 6 months slithering, running, or flying into that self setting vegetation the Council thinks so little of. I wonder what those animals will do now?
But worst of all is the frightening realisation that any tree, plant, or shrub – literally ANY of them – is liable to be chopped down by Nottinghamshire County Council if it isn’t officially a Card-carrying Member Of The United Alliance Of Hedgerows! And membership is, of course, determined ONLY by Nottinghamshire County Council!
Actually, this would explain a hell of a lot of the apparent ineptitude on the Council’s part over the years. Not one patch of land is safe from being ‘managed’ and having the underbrush cleared to make way for footpaths and fly-tippers. Often this is a precursor to a ‘Land For Sale’ sign going up at some point. So a patch of untouched land which is a haven for all kinds of wildlife (much of it not catalogued) is suddenly ‘maintained’, and becomes a dogs’ toilet for a while before being turned into an embryo slum estate.
But anyway, there you have it. On any country lane, only official hedgerows are protected in any way. Anything else – 50-year old trees, orchids, willows, whatever – are designated self setting vegetation can be torn down (badly) by the Council, at will. Unless they can prove they were ‘planted’!
Except… this is simply not true. It is Nottinghamshire County Council making things up! If you take a look at that Naturenet link to hedgerows and the law, it says:
A hedgerow is ‘a row of bushes forming a hedge, with the trees growing in it’. Where a former hedgerow has grown up to form trees, it is not covered by the regulations. The exact difference between a line of trees and a hedgerow is not defined in law.
So, nothing about being ‘planted’. And what constitutes a hedgerow covered by regulations?
Hedgerows on or adjacent to the following… Land used for agriculture [amongst others]…
Which is exactly what THIS former row of bushes and trees is bordering and acting as a hedge to.
You couldn’t make this up, sometimes. The Council is more than happy to do that, though!