The Medway Hedge Standard.
Every hedge business says it does a "proper job." Here is what that actually means on the ground in Chatham and the Medway towns, and the timeline we hold ourselves to across the year.
The ground is not the same as an inland town
Soils across the Medway towns vary, from free-draining chalk on the higher North Downs ground to heavier, wetter clay in the lower parts. Heavy ground holds water through the winter and can crack in a dry summer, while chalky ground drains fast, so a hedge needs matching to your own plot rather than to the town as a whole.
The estuary changes what a hedge can take
Gardens right on the waterside can take salt-laden wind off the Medway estuary. Wind like that can brown the exposed face of a conifer hedge, and it can stress tender new growth after a cut. We plant and stage reductions with that exposure in mind rather than pretending every garden in ME4 faces the same conditions.
The standard, in short
- Species and staging matched to your plot's exposure and soil, not a single generic approach
- Nesting season (RSPB guidance, 1 March to 31 August) respected on every job, checked before cutting inside the window
- Conservation-area notice filed for any stem over 75mm where the address requires it
- Fixed price agreed before work starts, no day-rate creep
- All arisings cleared, nothing burned on site
The conservation areas around the Dockyard and Rochester
Parts of Chatham close to the Historic Dockyard sit inside a Medway Council conservation area, and so does much of neighbouring Rochester's historic core. Under section 211 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, any tree with a stem over 75mm diameter at 1.5m height inside a conservation area needs six weeks' written notice to the council before pruning. We check this against the address before quoting, and file the notice as part of the job where it applies, no extra charge, no chasing on your part. See our section 211 notice guide for the full process and what happens during the six-week window.
The nesting season limits cutting for five months
Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, section 1, it is a criminal offence to damage or destroy an active wild bird's nest. The Act sets no calendar dates, but RSPB and GOV.UK guidance is to avoid hedge cutting from 1 March to 31 August. Outside that window we still look before we cut; inside it, we cut only after a competent visual check confirms no nest in use. Not having checked is no safeguard, and it shouldn't be, since checking takes minutes. See our season-by-season calendar for how this plays out across a full year in Chatham.
Why a timeline, not a checklist
A hedge is not a one-off job, it is a recurring commitment tied to the calendar, the species, and sometimes a multi-year plan (a staged leylandii reduction, a formal boundary dispute). That is why every guide on this site is organised around a timeline rather than a flat list, the order things happen in matters as much as the individual steps. See our staged leylandii reduction guide for a worked example across two winters.
Want the standard applied to your hedge?
Send a postcode and a couple of photos to hello@chathamhedges.co.uk or call 07763 100 477. Same-day quote in most cases.
Sources: Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, section 1; Town and Country Planning Act 1990, section 211; Medway Council conservation area guidance; RHS hedge-cutting seasonality guidance.