Central and local government pay some money towards Cornish hedge maintenance. Unfortunately these schemes give scant regard to the small size of our fields with the higher proportion of hedge throughout the county. This problem is partly recognised in the Entry Level Environment Scheme used by Defra which “aims to secure widespread environmental benefits” and includes “stone-faced earth banks” as an item. This will secure some grant-aid for those lengths of hedge which the farmer enters into the scheme, but provides no protection for those not entered. The hedges most in need may not be the ones that benefit.
The Hedgerows Regulations only apply to the growth on top of the hedge, defined in terms of a thorn hedgerow. In any case the Regulations only apply to hedgerow removal, and not to repairing hedgebanks.The potential cost of putting right all the gaps in every mile of hedgeside in Cornwall is probably in the region of £3 million every year. Poor workmanship in repairing and building hedges makes this problem worse. Even many of the older farmers, who used to repair their hedges in the traditional manner, are using the tractor bucket to scoop up the fallen hedge material and dump it on top of the hedge in the gap. They freely admit that it goes against their nature to do this, but there is not enough labour available to do the job properly, and there is not enough income from farming today to employ a hedging contractor.
So who should be responsible for looking after Cornish hedges? It is clear that the main beneficiaries are the public in general and tourists in particular. To secure the future of the Cornish hedge for its admiring public, it would seem only fair that sufficient public money should be made available for their upkeep.