Protection for hedges shelved

ANY PROSPECT of legislation on hedgerows has been quietly shelved, although it was in the Tory party election manifesto and John Major personally endorsed the policy at the launch of his general election campaign.

''We've changed our minds about the legislation,' one minister said.

Mr Major had said: 'If you were the MP for Huntingdon where hedgerows were ripped up in the 1960s and 1970s, you might feel as strongly as I do that we get as many of those hedgerows back.' His abandonment of that pledge will be seen as a further retreat from his vision of a Britain at ease with itself, free of motorway cones, with easy access to roadside toilets, warm beer, cricket and the song of warblers.

A Private Member's Bill to protect hedgerows had the support of the Department of Environment and the opposition parties, but was thwarted in the last session of Parliament by Tory MPs with farming interests.

A Bill could have been reintroduced after the ballot last week of MPs for the right to sponsor private member's legislation. The Government is seeking backbench sponsors for about 20 Bills but hedgerows is not in the list.

It has come as a deep disappointment to the Ramblers' Association, one of the environmental lobby groups that wrote to Mr Major this year reminding him of the manifesto commitment. The White Paper on environment published in December 1990, This Common Inheritance, said the Government would 'take action to enable local authorities to protect hedgerows of key importance by making preservation orders'.

The Prime Minister's office assured the association: 'We remain committed to bringing forward our own measures when parliamentary time permits and will now consider very carefully the range of complex issues that were thrown up during the passage of this Bill.'

The Hedgerows Bill, introduced by Peter Ainsworth, Tory MP for Surrey East, was seen by the association as 'a beacon of hope' until it was killed off by amendments and lack of time. It would have required a farmer or landowner wishing to remove a hedgerow to notify the local planning authority, which would have had power to refuse on the grounds of the hedgerow's wildlife, historic or landscape value.