Demand for action on hedgerows

Conservationists will today demand that the Government brings in new regulations to protect the hedgerows of England and Wales, seven years after they were first promised.

The Council for the Protection of Rural England is sending the Department of the Environment 69 recent examples of where farmers and landowners have destroyed hedgerows.

The latest government figures for 1990-1993 show 10,000 miles of hedgerow being lost each year. The new rules would compel landowners to notify the local council several weeks before removing a hedge. The council would then have time to decide whether the hedge met criteria for being "important". Nicholas Schoon