Tough new rules urgedto protect hedgerows

More than 16,000 miles of English hedgerows disappeared in a decade, campaigners said today as they called for rules on protecting hedges to be improved.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) also urged the Government to ensure that environmental funding schemes which pay landowners to protect hedgerows do not fall victim of the current spending cuts.

The CPRE said hedgerows are the most widespread semi-natural habitat in England, with some dating back hundreds of years, and others growing on earth banks built more than 4,000 years ago by Bronze Age Britons.

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They provide important habitat and “corridors” for wildlife to move through the countryside and help define the landscape.

New figures show more hedgerows are being protected, with 42 per cent of the country’s managed hedges conserved, an 18 per cent increase on the last survey conducted by CPRE in 1998. But the overall length of England’s managed hedgerows fell by six per cent, or more than 16,000 miles, between 1998 and 2007, with many lost not only by removal but by a lack of management which sees the habitat degenerate into lines of trees and shrubs.

The CPRE wants regulations brought in more than a decade ago to be amended so local authorities have more power to preserve hedges which provide habitat to wildlife and are a valued part of the landscape. It is a criminal offence to remove an “important” hedgerow, with fines of up to 5,000.

The rules allow local authorities to save them if they are more than 20 metres long, at least 30 years old and meet criteria based on the wildlife they support, historical significance and features such as hedge banks, ditches or trees.

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