Protecting Landican's Hedgerows

It's National Hedgerow Week

 

The Tree Council's National Hedgerow Week is 29th May until 6th June.

Hedgerow in Landican

It would be wonderful to get the hedges at Landican protected as a Local Wildlife Site. Protection of valuable species-rich hedges through the planning system is something that gets little attention in many Local Authorities. Hedgerow Regulations 1997 apply to rural hedges, but often there are no data on individual hedges until planning proposals arise, and sometimes they get cleared before the planning application goes in.

However, all areas have Local Wildlife Sites (or equivalent names) as a tier of wildlife sites below the national one of SSSIs, which are protected by Local Plan policies. The criteria for these are set locally and can include hedges, as those for the Cheshire Region do.

Hedgerow at the edge of a field in Landican

In Wirral we have just put our first set of hedges forward for protection as a Local Wildlife Site, located in farmland in Landican. The Wirral Local Wildlife Sites Partnership has agreed this and it now goes forward in the Wirral Local Plan. This ensures the hedges get on the Local Plan maps and the planning department Hazards maps. Since the process involves landowner consultation, it also makes sure the landowner and tenant know the value of the hedges. Hopefully if the future Agricultural Act funding really does give `public money for public goods' then having a LWS on the farm may become valuable in money terms.

Hedgerow in farmland in Landican

Very few areas have comprehensive hedge surveys, but if individual species-rich hedges are known, then LWS designation can be used to highlight and hopefully protect them. The LWS designation can also be used for urban hedges if they are species-rich (perhaps an old rural hedge swallowed up by a housing estate). Hedgerow Regulations do not apply to urban hedges at present.