Hedge cutting in Hardwick Lane © Michael Trolove
“How can a person encourage or force a landowner to meet their legal obligation to clear up hedge debris from public roads?” Robin Sheppard, Cowbridge, South Glamorgan”
The legal obligation on landowners to clear up hedges can be found in section 154 of the Highways Act 1980. As an aside, all references below to hedges also apply in relation to trees and shrubs. Where a hedge overhangs a highway or any other road to which the public has access to so as to: ‘endanger or obstruct the passage of vehicles or pedestrians’, or ‘obstruct or interfere with the view of drivers of vehicles or the light from a public lamp’, or ‘overhangs a highway so as to endanger or obstruct the passage of horse riders’, the local council may, by notice either to the owner of the hedge or to the occupier of the land on which it is growing, require him to within 14 days from the date of service of the notice to cut it so as to remove the cause of the danger, obstruction or interference.
A person aggrieved by any such requirement may appeal to a Magistrates court. Subject to any appeal, if a person on whom a notice is served fails to comply with it within the specified period the council may carry out the work required by the notice and recover the expenses reasonably incurred in so doing from the person in default.
If an ordinary member of the public wishes to make a complaint to the council in order to enforce the obligations of the landowner under the Highways Act 1980, then that person simply needs to call the council to register the complaint.The council will then send a Street Enforcement Officer who will serve the notice on the landowner.
Where the landowner fails to clear up hedge debris from a public road, an aggrieved person may be able to bring a claim for public nuisance. A nuisance can generally be defined as an act or omission which endangers the life, health or property of the public. The nuisance must materially affect a class of people who come within the sphere of the nuisance. It is not necessary to prove that every member of the class has been injured or affected. It is only a civil wrong and actionable as such when a private individual has suffered particular damage over and above the general inconvenience and injury suffered by the public. For example, a punctured tyre caused by the debris.
These days environmental legislation has made this remedy probably less useful than it once was. It does remain useful however where the injured party requires compensatory damages or where the public agency is not prepared to take action. However, enforcement of duties under legislative provisions is for the most part the concern of local authorities and other public agencies. In which case, if a landowner has neglected his duties and failed to clear up debris from his hedge, the first port of call should be the local council who will send round a Street Enforcement Officer who will serve notice on the landowner.
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A to B 49 – Aug 2005
