Robert Rutt invoiced DEFRA for an £8,000 income loss for each of August 2015, 2016 and 2017. He added a letter protesting against current British regulations banning hedge cutting in August, offering to travel to London to meet officials and discuss the ban.Hedges can be cut only from 1 September in the UK, unless a farmer applies for a derogation to trim hedges before sowing oilseed rape or temporary grassland in August.
Robert Rutt invoiced DEFRA for an £8,000 income loss for each of August 2015, 2016 and 2017. He added a letter protesting against current British regulations banning hedge cutting in August, offering to travel to London to meet officials and discuss the ban.
Hedges can be cut only from 1 September in the UK, unless a farmer applies for a derogation to trim hedges before sowing oilseed rape or temporary grassland in August.
Rutt offered a solution to the Department: “Return the arable start date to 1 August and then put the grassland start date to 1 September. Simple,” he wrote.
In the Republic of Ireland, hedge-cutting remains banned in August, except for road safety reasons, pending proposed legislation introducing a degree of flexibility for farmers. The Heritage Bill covering the proposal has met strong opposition in the Oireachtas and is scheduled to be discussed again in the autumn.
Read more
Full coverage: hedge cutting
This is a subscriber-only article
SHARING OPTIONS: