On the evening of the 4th of April 2014 Cambridgeshire Police tweeted a warning to residents stating:
Doing a bit of gardening this weekend? Make sure your hedges are neatly trimmed, max 1m at the front and 2m at the back
This is utterly bizarre. Not only is there no requirement for hedges to be trimmed to those, or any other, specifications; hedge trimming is not something the police ought be getting involved in.
Other than in the most extreme cases, perhaps where a hedge had collapsed and was obstructing the highway, or had become structurally unsafe and causing a hazard, would I expect the police to take any interest at all in hedges.
Hedge height disputes should be matters for discussion between neighbours, with even local councils only getting involved in exceptional cases.
I want to see the police focused on things which will reduce injury and harm. Making our roads safer, acting on violent crime, preventing burglary, not taking it upon themselves to enforce rules they appear to have created themselves in relation to hedges.
I wonder if Police and Crime Commissioner Graham Bright or other local elected representatives have directed the police to act against hedges?
The Cambridgeshire Police tweet has been deleted following an outcry on Twitter from bemused and amused residents:
Eh?? RT@CambsCops "Doing a bit of gardening this weekend? Make sure your hedges are neatly trimmed, max 1m at the front and 2m at the back"
— Jeremy Sallis (@jeremysallis) April 4, 2014
@CambsCops I have a lot of respect for you lot and the work you do. But this tweet is just just nonsense. Stick to policing.
— Phil Rodgers (@PhilRodgers) April 4, 2014
@orangemousse @CambsCops is that on pain of arrest for not trimming the hedges within defined parameters?
— Yvan Seth (@ale_is_good) April 4, 2014
@jeremysallis @CambsCops My thoughts exactly Jez. Didn't know we had hedge police???
— Emma Howgego (@EmmaHowgego) April 4, 2014
@badguvnor I'm not showing @CambsCops *my* 'back hedge'
— dan woodford (@orangemousse) April 4, 2014
@CambsCops Is this directive from Special Branch
— Susan (@Dulynotedagain) April 4, 2014
9 responses to “Cambridgeshire Police Retract Hedge Threat After Twitter Outcry”
I have previously supported a Cambridge resident’s planning application to trim their hedge.
There has also been a planning farce over a trellis:
I doubt it’s about visibility; I think the police have misunderstood the law on permitted development regarding walls and fences (which do involve limits 1m at the front and 2m at the back and sides) and wrongly concluded 1. They apply to hedges and 2. It’s the police’s job to enforce planning law.
I’m not sure if this one is a response:
Looks as if overnight the police have come up with an explanation:
How would lower back hedges help prevent burglary?
The BBC have now covered the story and have obtained a quote from a police spokesperson which appears to renew the police’s stance in relation to hedges:
Telling people to cut hedges back to 1m or 2m at this time of year would for many of us mean disturbing nesting birds. Which would be illegal and irresponsible – I wonder, is our local police service trying to encourage us to commit some wildlife crime? Didn’t strike me that they were short of business…
Cambridgeshire Police have issued a further statement on hedges. PC Jo Grant used Police and Crime Commissioner Graham Bright’s “ALERT” system to send a Home Security Self Assessment checklist to residents of Cambridgeshire; the checklist includes: