When can you cut hedges in Somerset?

What months can you not cut a hedge?

On farmland in England, you must not cut or trim a hedgerow covered by the hedgerow management rules from 1 March to 31 August. Garden hedges have no fixed closed season, but the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 protects nests in use or being built, so those same spring and summer months are the ones to avoid.

The Rural Payments Agency enforces these rules, in force since 23 May 2024. The second sentence matters if you pay someone to cut a hedge for you: the person who arranges the work can be in breach as well as the one holding the hedge cutter.

Does the farm hedge ban apply to a garden hedge?

Usually not. The cutting rules cover hedgerows on or next to agricultural land, and they exempt a hedge inside a house's garden or marking its boundary, on both sides. Around Axbridge and the Levels, where many gardens back onto fields and paddocks, that exemption matters. The nesting law applies to every hedge regardless.

For the rules to apply, a hedgerow has to pass two tests. On length, it must be more than 20 metres long with gaps of 20 metres or less, or shorter but meeting another hedgerow at each end. On location, it must grow on or next to land used for agriculture. Gov.uk lists what that includes:

• grazing land and meadow land
• land for breeding and keeping livestock, which includes horses and ponies
• dairy farming, horticulture, fruit and seed growing
• market gardens, nursery grounds and allotments

So a long hedge between a pony paddock and a lane is covered. A hedge between your back garden and that paddock is exempt from the cutting rules, but not from the law on nests.

Can you cut a hedge in the nesting season if there are no nests?

For a garden hedge, the RSPB says it is legal to cut vegetation at any time of year as long as no active nests are moved or damaged. Its advice is still not to cut between March and September, and to watch the hedge for a few days and check it thoroughly before any unavoidable trim.

Robins and wrens often nest a few metres off the ground, where a garden hedge gives them cover. The RSPB's checks before cutting in season are:

• watch the hedge for a few days for nesting activity
• look for birds going back and forth regularly, the main sign of a nest
• check the hedge, tree or shrub thoroughly for active nests before you start

If you find a nest, leave that hedge alone until the young have flown. The RSPB says suspected offences should be reported to the police on 101, asking for the local Wildlife Crime Officer.

Why are late autumn and winter the best time to cut a hedge?

By autumn most young birds have fledged and hedges have slowed down, so a cut made between now and February stays tidy into spring. The RSPB recommends cutting between 1 September and 28 February, and for hedges that flower and fruit it says to wait until late winter, after birds have eaten the berries.

In practice that splits Somerset hedges into two groups. A clipped garden hedge of privet, laurel or conifer carries little food for birds and can be cut in October or November. A mixed native hedge of hawthorn, blackthorn and holly, the kind that lines lanes and field edges on the Levels and below the Mendips, is feeding thrushes and blackbirds through early winter, so it is better left until January or February.

What about wet ground, frost and storms in Somerset?

Winter cutting has practical limits. On Levels clay, the ground beside field hedges and rhynes can stay waterlogged for weeks, which makes ladders and platforms unsteady and leaves ruts in lawns. A hedge in a hard frost or a gale off the Bristol Channel is better left for a calmer, drier day before the end of February.

The farm deadline is fixed, so a wet January can squeeze the window. Booking a garden hedge in for November or December avoids a scramble in late February.

After a storm, look at the hedge before anyone cuts it. A branch hanging over a path can be trimmed back, but a hedge tree that has split or come down is tree work, not hedge cutting. For safety, that is one for a qualified tree surgeon.

Who is responsible for a hedge overhanging a road, path or neighbour's garden?

The owner of the hedge is responsible for it. You may trim branches crossing into your property, but only up to the boundary. If a hedge obstructs a road, the highways authority, which is Somerset Council for most of the county, can ask the owner to cut it back, and can do the work and charge if they refuse.

Gov.uk sets out the points that come up most often between neighbours:

• you can trim branches or roots that cross into your property from a neighbour's land or a public road, up to the boundary only
• a high hedge complaint to the council needs a hedge of 2 or more mostly evergreen or semi-evergreen trees or shrubs, over 2 metres tall, and you must try to settle it informally first
• in a conservation area, or where trees are under a tree preservation order, you might need council permission to trim them