Roadside hedges (1 Viewer)

[L' Hobo]

I love walking down country lanes. Always have. But lately I've taken to carrying a pair of secateurs with me as some of the brambles, hawthorn branches etc. have become a clear obstacle on the pathways of many of those lanes. Those lanes are much clearer (for a while) once I have passed.

I hope you return the cuttings to the Town Hall, otherwise it's Vandalism or Theft!

Don't laugh, it's TRUE!

 

[steve69]

Fill your boots and have a look.

Criminal justice statistics quarterly

Trends in the use of out of court disposals, defendants prosecuted, offenders convicted, remand and sentencing decisions, and offender histories in England and Wales.

www.gov.uk

Your having a laugh. Read through that!.......Your joking. I found this summary on another webpage:

. Community Payback​

Community Payback is unpaid work like:

• removing graffiti
• clearing wasteland
• decorating public places and buildings - for example, a community centre

You will usually work in your local area, and be managed by a Community Payback supervisor. You must wear a high visibility orange vest while you work.
You can expect to complete anything from 40 to 300 hours of Community Payback, depending on how serious your crime was.
You have to work 3 or 4 days each week if you’re unemployed.
The Community Payback work will be arranged outside your working hours if you have a job, for example evenings or weekends.

 

[jockaneezer]

Around here, there was a minibus discretely signed with "Community Payback" and a retired copper drove the perps to local parks to litter pick. It looked more of an inconvenience for them than actual graft ?
I was hoping to hear them chanting and shouting phrases like "Getting a drink or water here Boss !" while the ex cop, chewing a toothpick and shouldering a pump action shotgun watched over them !

 

[steve69]

Yeah, who would want to be a manager in a council,

The boss of Guildford council on a paltry £600,000+ a year. Or bosses of Sunderland or N Lanarkshire on a measly £500,000 a year

No wonder they can't recruit, with more than a thousand local council officials earning a derisory £150,000 a year. Let's go for more and higher council tax raises and get these people the wages they deserve.

....and you wonder where the money that could be better spent really goes......

 

[Googlebot]

The boss of Guildford council on a paltry £600,000+ a year. Or bosses of Sunderland or N Lanarkshire on a measly £500,000 a year

Bit disingenuous to quote a termination package as yearly salary. Even the taxpayers alliance (that are definitely not allied to the taxpayer), say his salary was between 150,000 and 170,000 a year.

How Britain's biggest council fatcat was paid £607,000 in a year

EXCLUSIVE: James Whiteman, 57, received the huge sum after taking voluntary redundancy from Guildford Borough Council in Surrey, where he had been managing director, in 2021.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Also a look at the table in the article which is probably what you have read is clear these are exceptions and not rules.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Paulypaul]

Narrow roads with overgrown hedges are a nightmare in a lorry. Couple that with a wide load and it's just a complete headache, especially when it's a boat which will get marked easily.

Replacing mirror assemblies on my truck is £500 minimum so I've got stainless mirror guards but they won't stop the mirror arm being pushed around, potentially through the window too

 

[L' Hobo]

Fill your boots and have a look.

Criminal justice statistics quarterly

Trends in the use of out of court disposals, defendants prosecuted, offenders convicted, remand and sentencing decisions, and offender histories in England and Wales.

www.gov.uk

Yet more stats, isn't that the Politicians answer to everything!

When asked about the NHS, all they tell you is how much more money they have spent this year, NOT how much for each patient which is often less due to overcrowding.

 

[Jim]

Bit disingenuous to quote a termination package as yearly salary.

No what is disingenuous is to pay someone half a million from local taxes while you cut public services.

 

[EuroTrotters]

Most of it where I work is farmers and land owners not tending hedges, borders, trees etc.

Cheshire & Derbyshire

 

[Googlebot]

No what is disingenuous is to pay someone half a million from local taxes while you cut public services.

I don’t disagree, it stinks and the Councillors need holding to account at the next local election by the the public.

It still isn’t a yearly salary though regardless of the whataboutery you keep putting forward.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[L' Hobo]

Narrow roads with overgrown hedges are a nightmare in a lorry. Couple that with a wide load and it's just a complete headache, especially when it's a boat which will get marked easily.

Replacing mirror assemblies on my truck is £500 minimum so I've got stainless mirror guards but they won't stop the mirror arm being pushed around, potentially through the window too

Imagine what it's like for Double Deckers?
Councils used to be responsible for cutting back tree etc on Bus Routes, that's long gone and the Operator is responsible for his own body repairs and I was Cautioned for Road Obstruction and Cutting back trees!

I cut the route instead after getting NO help from the Council!

 

[PaddyM]

Some of the comments on here about farmers from people who don't have a clue just amaze me at times.
There is no grant for cutting hedges and never has been, the reason hedges are not cut between march and September is for just the opposite reason.
All in the name of green you can not cut hedges between these months, because of nesting birds and in fact opposite to what you are all saying, if you are found cutting hedges you can lose any entitlement to other payments that you can get.
And I suppose this applies to councils as well.

Well I do have a clue because I live on an old farm and am surrounded by arable land as far as the eye can see . The land is worked year round .
I used to believe that farmers were the guardians/custodians of the countryside but after observing their shenanigans for the past twenty years I conclude that they are very much NOT .
From littering the area to destroying the verges with their massive tractors and trailers , leaving up to four inches of mud over the country lanes to blocking completely the drains ( run offs ) with said mud and blocking passing places with heavy plant the list is depressingly endless .
If the people who work the land are intent on destroying the countryside infrastructure then we ( the townies ) stand no chance .

 

[chaser]

Well I do have a clue because I live on an old farm and am surrounded by arable land as far as the eye can see . The land is worked year round .
I used to believe that farmers were the guardians/custodians of the countryside but after observing their shenanigans for the past twenty years I conclude that they are very much NOT .
From littering the area to destroying the verges with their massive tractors and trailers , leaving up to four inches of mud over the country lanes to blocking completely the drains ( run offs ) with said mud and blocking passing places with heavy plant the list is depressingly endless .
If the people who work the land are intent on destroying the countryside infrastructure then we ( the townies ) stand no chance .

Maybe so, but this thread is about hedges.

 

[Jim]

I used to believe that farmers were the guardians/custodians of the countryside

They might have been in years gone by, and I know some are striving to be so again.

But today's farmer is killing the land and wildlife, not guarding it. Massive fields. Thousands of miles of hedgerows, ditches and field ponds dead gone. As a kid, farmland hedges and ponds were always teeming with life, walk around the same countryside today, and you'll struggle to hear birdsong, they are not there. It's all gone, ripped or poisoned, and the mad thing is, farmers probably had a grant to do it.

 

[SpeedyDux]

Plenty of Main A roads up here have overgrown trees and bushes. Ive noticed plenty road signs grown over and not visible in advance of junctions and roundabouts .
Money saving ?

On the plus side, some of our local fixed speed cameras have their view of the road obscured by tree branches!

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[SpeedyDux]

They might have been in years gone by, and I know some are striving to be so again.

But today's farmer is killing the land and wildlife, not guarding it. Massive fields. Thousands of miles of hedgerows, ditches and field ponds dead gone. As a kid, farmland hedges and ponds were always teeming with life, walk around the same countryside today, and you'll struggle to hear birdsong, they are not there. It's all gone, ripped or poisoned, and the mad thing is, farmers probably had a grant to do it.

Housing developers are also removing hedgerows and mature trees from greenfield sites immediately after they obtain planning permission. TPOs in force? Probably not, thanks to lax Councils.

I still remember when hedgerows were a marvel for finding caterpillars and other insects to collect in jars. Loads of butterflies and songbirds. Not any longer.

 

[Tea Bag]

Housing developers are also removing hedgerows and mature trees from greenfield sites immediately after they obtain planning permission. TPOs in force? Probably not, thanks to lax Councils.

I still remember when hedgerows were a marvel for finding caterpillars and other insects to collect in jars. Loads of butterflies and songbirds. Not any longer.

Hi.
I remember being in a Layby with my nose bag on in the lorry. A post and rail fence alongside had a thorn hedge growing into/along it. I saw a movement and watched.... Only a Stoat/weasel whatever, trucking easy along one of the rails up from the floor ,going to or from a meal. Things i have seen from behind the wheel........ " Yes "
Tea Bag

 

[Jim]

I still remember when hedgerows were a marvel for finding caterpillars and other insects to collect in jars. Loads of butterflies and songbirds. Not any longer.

We had a smallholding in Oxfordshire as a kid, the noise from hedgerows was at times a din. Back then farmers Big fields were small, 10 acre field was 'the big field'. In Lincolnshire, they have fields that must be hundreds of acres, not a hedge in sight.

 

[Googlebot]

We had a smallholding in Oxfordshire as a kid, the noise from hedgerows was at times a din. Back then farmers Big fields were small, 10 acre field was 'the big field'. In Lincolnshire, they have fields that must be hundreds of acres, not a hedge in sight.

I always marvel at the size of the fields as you go through France. They make ours look small.

 

[dash300]

Some of the comments on here about farmers from people who don't have a clue just amaze me at times.
There is no grant for cutting hedges and never has been, the reason hedges are not cut between march and September is for just the opposite reason.
All in the name of green you can not cut hedges between these months, because of nesting birds and in fact opposite to what you are all saying, if you are found cutting hedges you can lose any entitlement to other payments that you can get.
And I suppose this applies to councils as well.

The grants stopped when we we left the Eu. You must have missed out. Never agreed with it personally but Sister was an avid grant chaser. The farm was paid by the meter of hedge cut with alternating top and sides each year. It was a nice little earner for the Farm. One year she even used a contractor, paid him less than the grant so made some money for doing nowt.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[steve69]

Around here, most of that kind of work, including organised LITTER PICKS are done by volunteers.
Perhaps Googlebot knows better?

During Covid, many litter picking groups appeared as a way of "getting out and about" without being persecuted for it. I and many others are still part of one of those groups.

 

[L' Hobo]

On the plus side, some of our local fixed speed cameras have their view of the road obscured by tree branches!

No, they make money, strangely these are kept clear!

 

[L' Hobo]

Your having a laugh. Read through that!.......Your joking. I found this summary on another webpage:

. Community Payback​

Community Payback is unpaid work like:

• removing graffiti
• clearing wasteland
• decorating public places and buildings - for example, a community centre

You will usually work in your local area, and be managed by a Community Payback supervisor. You must wear a high visibility orange vest while you work.
You can expect to complete anything from 40 to 300 hours of Community Payback, depending on how serious your crime was.
You have to work 3 or 4 days each week if you’re unemployed.
The Community Payback work will be arranged outside your working hours if you have a job, for example evenings or weekends.

Those were the days!

 

[L' Hobo]

We had a smallholding in Oxfordshire as a kid, the noise from hedgerows was at times a din. Back then farmers Big fields were small, 10 acre field was 'the big field'. In Lincolnshire, they have fields that must be hundreds of acres, not a hedge in sight.

Most of which was done, on farms, just after the war at the behest and encouragement of the Government.
Scatter Phosphate, spray with DDT they said and the Farmers complied without subsidies as far as I remember, the Government pointed out that with more growth, the Farmer got more profit!

They wanted us to plough up all the grassland, pull up ALL the hedgerows so that production of food could triple using half the workforce most of which had been killed in WW11.

Once the Farmer had paid a fortune for bigger machinery, they are hardly going to restore the landscape and make these machines redundant!

Don't blame the Farmers, your parents wanted Rationing to end so their son could grow up to be a handsome, strong strapping lad.
I hope they succeeded?

 

[Jim]

Don't blame the Farmers, your parents wanted Rationing to end so their son could grow up to be a strong strapping lad.

I don’t think so. Rationing ended long before I was born. I agree about the pesticides, but in my lifetime I’ve noticed that the field sizes have increased and that nitrates became the norm. As a boy I cannot remember seeing fertiliser spreaders on farms we worked at. Plenty of muck spreaders, though. Plenty of hedges to cut too.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Spriddler]

I sold my sailing yacht to a guy from Devon. At first I thought he was pulling my leg when he said he was a government 'Hedgerow Inspector'.

 

[Lenny HB]

I don’t think so. Rationing ended long before I was born.

I think it finally ended in 1954.

 

[L' Hobo]

I think it finally ended in 1954.

Yes, it was about then, perhaps a year earlier, when the Sweet Rationing ended.
I remember it well!

 

[Jimbohorlicks]

You can't have community payback people cutting hedges in roadways. It's not a safe environment with all those camouflaged motorhomes speeding past

 

[PaulyP]

Actually, it’s an unpaid role with expenses only.

They may be higher than inflation, but it’s not enough to earn a fortune.

Becoming a councillor

We need people from all backgrounds and experiences who reflect the communities they serve to put themselves forward for election.

www.local.gov.uk

Ok, I bet the councillors don’t scrimp on claiming lots of expenses !

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}