Islanders to be asked for a cut that’s kindest to our hedgerows

Islanders to be asked for a cut that’s kindest to our hedgerows

A group of campaigners recently met the Constables’ Committee and a representative from Growth, Housing and Environment to voice their concern that using heavy machinery to strip back hedgerows to ‘ground zero’ was killing wildlife, including bats, birds and hedgehogs.

Although no formal changes are to be put forward, it was agreed at the meeting that landowners will now be asked to leave between eight and 12 inches of growth on the banques.

Currently, there is no limit in place and contractors and gardeners can cut the plants down to the ground.

Details of the new policy will be included in a leaflet being drawn up by Growth, Housing and Environment which will be posted to households.

Environment campaigner Bob Tompkins, who was at the meeting, added that while nothing had been ‘set in stone’ the group came away in agreement that change was urgently needed in order to protect the Island’s countryside.

Farmers and gardeners are to meet at the end of May to agree on the new policy and how it is to be policed. Additionally, the first branchage date in June could be moved back to coincide with the school summer holidays to avoid traffic.

Before last week’s meeting, lobbyists had put forward a set of proposals in a paper to the Constables’ Committee, calling for changes to the Branchage Law. Mr Tompkins, who is also a member of the Branchage Action Group, said: ‘The meeting went well and we were really pleased at how receptive the group was.

‘It is important that we make progress on this as soon as possible but because of the rate at which the law is changing at the minute, if we went down the route of changing the law we would be waiting five to seven years.’

The president of the Jersey Farmers Union, Peter Le Maistre, who also attended the meeting, said the new guidelines were a middle ground which he was happy to reach.

He said: ‘We [the Farmers Union] are stuck in the middle in a sense, as by law we need to ensure the road is clear and safe but on the other hand I can see the case for changing the way in which we do things to ensure the environment is protected.

‘Currently we are under pressure to cut them in a clean way but perhaps we do cut them back too much, which is why we have agreed to meet at the end of May with the gardeners and environmentalists before branchage season, to agree on what is acceptable.’

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