In Redditch, overgrown hedges can quickly dominate smaller gardens, so professional reduction can help recover space and make future maintenance easier.
SPR Trees & Landscapes provides professional hedge maintenance in Redditch for homeowners, landlords and businesses needing help with routine cutting, shaping or heavily overgrown hedges.
In Redditch, overgrown hedges can quickly dominate smaller gardens, so professional reduction can help recover space and make future maintenance easier.
With over 15 years' experience, SPR can help with everything from regular hedge trimming through to substantial reductions on large conifer and Leylandii hedges. Every hedge is quoted after seeing it, because length, height, width, species and access all change the job.
In a smaller garden the hedge is proportionally a much bigger deal, and letting it gain six inches a year in every direction shows quickly. Regular cutting to a fixed line is what keeps a small garden from being run by its boundary.
In a small garden a tapered hedge is worth more than a square one: it gives back a few inches of usable ground at the base and lets light onto whatever is planted beneath it.
In a small garden a reduction can change the whole feel of the space, and it is worth being slightly bolder than feels comfortable — on a species that regrows, a hedge cut hard is back to looking full within two seasons and you get years of easier maintenance out of it.
A conifer hedge in a small garden is the classic case of a screening plant in the wrong place. Where the green has gone and the hedge is too big for the space, the realistic choice is between living with it and replacing it — and it is better to hear that than to be sold a reduction that cannot work.
Leylandii in a small garden almost always end up too big for the space, because the growth rate does not care how big the garden is. Where they still have plenty of green, reduction works well; where they do not, replacing them with something slower is often the better long-term answer.
The rule most people have half-heard is the "two metre" one, and it is worth stating properly because it is almost always repeated wrong. There is no legal maximum height for a hedge. You are not obliged to keep a hedge at two metres and nobody can make you cut one simply because it is taller than that. What the two-metre figure actually marks is the threshold at which a neighbour can complain to Redditch Borough Council under Part 8 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003.
For a complaint to qualify, the hedge has to be a line of two or more evergreens over two metres tall that acts as a barrier to light or access. That means conifers, laurel and privet are in scope; beech and hornbeam, being deciduous, are not, and neither is a single tree however large. The neighbour has to have tried to sort it out directly first, and Redditch Borough Council charges a fee to take the complaint on — fees vary widely between councils and change each April, so it is worth checking the current figure rather than relying on what someone was charged elsewhere.
If Redditch Borough Council does issue a remedial notice, there are firm limits on what it can require. It cannot order the hedge to be reduced below two metres, and it cannot order it removed. It can require a reduction to some height at or above two metres and require that height to be maintained, and the notice is registered as a local land charge, so it stays with the property when it is sold.
The nesting-bird question comes up on nearly every summer enquiry, and the answer is more workable than people expect. Cutting a hedge between March and August is not itself unlawful. What the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 prohibits is intentionally damaging or destroying a nest that is in use or being built — so the job is to look properly first and leave alone any part of the hedge that is occupied.
Garden hedges also sit outside the hedgerow regulations entirely. The 1 March to 31 August cutting ban applies to hedgerows on agricultural land under the 2024 Regulations, and both those and the 1997 Regulations exclude anything within the curtilage of a dwelling house.
One genuine catch: a hedge itself cannot carry a Tree Preservation Order, but a tree growing up within one can, and an old hedge that has become a line of trees can be covered too. A protected tree needs written consent from Redditch Borough Council at any size — there is no small-tree exemption for a TPO. If the property is in a conservation area, a tree in the hedge needs six weeks' notice unless its stem is under 75mm across, measured 1.5m up. The hedge around it stays unrestricted either way. Where a boundary is a mix of hedge and self-sown trees, that is worth checking before work starts.
Where the garden is being reworked, hedges come first. They are the messiest job and the one most likely to damage new work, so getting them cut, reduced or removed while the ground is still bare saves both cost and risk.
SPR covers tree surgery as well as hedge maintenance, which matters most on boundaries where it is not obvious where the hedge stops and the trees start. Both can be assessed on the same visit.
Five guides written for Redditch homeowners, covering what hedge work costs, what drives the price and how to decide what you actually need.
Hedge cutting and reduction carried out by SPR across Worcestershire and the surrounding counties.
“Trimmed large conifer hedge and bushes - A really excellent job done would recommend”
“We employed these guys to trim the conifers at the end of our garden. The work they carried out was first...”
“Cut and trimmed our Leylandii hedge two weeks ago. Took away the cuttings. Excellent job, as usual....”
The cost depends on the hedge's length, height, width, condition, access and the amount of work required. Contact SPR for a free quotation.
Yes. Professional hedge cutting, trimming and shaping are core SPR services.
Yes. We can assess large overgrown hedges and discuss appropriate height reduction.
Yes. Leylandii hedge cutting and reduction form part of our hedge-maintenance service.
Depending on the hedge and its condition, we can assess excessive width and discuss the appropriate work.
Yes. We provide professional cutting and reduction for large conifer hedges.
Yes. SPR also provides tree pruning, reductions, removals and stump grinding.
Yes. Call or WhatsApp 07542 451291.
No. There is no legal maximum height for a garden hedge, and you cannot be made to cut one just for being tall. Two metres is the point at which a neighbour can complain to Redditch Borough Council about an evergreen hedge that blocks their light or access — and even then the council cannot require it below two metres or order it removed.
Yes, provided there is no active nest in the section being cut. It is not an offence to cut a hedge in summer; the offence is damaging a nest that is in use or being built. We check before starting and leave any part with an active nest until the birds have finished. The 1 March to 31 August ban you may have read about applies to farm hedgerows, not garden ones.
SPR covers Worcester and the surrounding towns for hedge maintenance, tree surgery and wider landscaping.
SPR Trees & Landscapes, 6 Rose Avenue, Worcester, WR4 9PY
Need a hedge cut, shaped or reduced in Redditch? Tell us what you need and we'll get back to you — usually the same day.
Prefer to talk? Call 07542 451291 or WhatsApp us.
