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How to cut back a hedge that overhangs your boundary in Broadstairs: the common-law method for CT10.

A neighbour's privet has grown two feet into your garden. A cherry laurel from the adjoining Victorian terrace in St Peter's leans over your path and drips in autumn. A Leylandii from the house behind now shades half your plot. The common law gives you a right to cut back any growth that crosses your boundary, without permission from the hedge's owner, provided you do not trespass onto their land. What it does not give you is the right to do it during the nesting season without checking first, or in one of Broadstairs' four conservation areas without confirming that the stems involved are not thick enough to trigger a section 211 notice. This guide gives the step-by-step method for getting it right: the checks before you lift a tool, the cut itself, and what happens to the material you remove.

Steps

Step 1: Establish whether the overhanging hedge sits in a conservation area or involves protected stems

Broadstairs has four designated conservation areas: Broadstairs CA (the town centre and clifftop terraces), St Peter's CA (the village centre and surrounds), Reading Street CA, and Kingsgate CA. If your property or your neighbour's falls within any of them, an additional check applies before any cutting work begins.

Under section 211 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, any work to a tree in a conservation area with a trunk diameter of more than 75mm (measured at 1.5m above ground level) requires six weeks' advance notice to Thanet District Council before the work starts. A dense hedge consisting of multiple close-set stems, each individually under 75mm, generally does not trigger this threshold. A mature boundary hedge that has been left largely uncut for many years, or individual large-stemmed shrubs such as Portuguese laurel or holm oak used as a screen, can approach or exceed it. Measure stems you intend to cut before you start if there is any doubt, rather than after.

If the hedge is not in a conservation area and no Tree Preservation Order applies, the common-law right to cut back overhanging growth operates without any council notification or permission requirement. Check the Thanet District Council interactive planning map (planning.thanet.gov.uk) to confirm the conservation area boundary if you are not certain which side of it you are on: some streets in St Peter's and in the Kingsgate area have boundaries that run between adjacent properties, not along the road.

Step 2: Check for active nests before touching the hedge

Walk the full length of the overhanging growth before starting any work. Privet, laurel, hawthorn and most hedging shrubs grown against a sunny fence or boundary wall are heavily used nesting sites. Watch for adult birds flying repeatedly into the same section, or listen for alarm calls and the sound of young birds from inside the canopy. If you find an active nest with eggs or young, mark the section and leave it. Return once the brood has fledged: for most garden species this takes three to five weeks from hatching.

The practical caution window runs from 1 March to 31 August for most CT10 gardens. Overhanging growth on clifftop boundaries above Stone Bay, Joss Bay, Kingsgate and North Foreland should be treated with the extended caution window running to 30 September, given herring gull nesting activity in those locations.

Step 3: Write a brief note to your neighbour before you start

You do not need your neighbour's permission to cut back growth that overhangs your land. The common law gives you that right without their consent. However, notifying them in writing before you start is strongly advisable, for two practical reasons.

First, it prevents disputes about damage. If a large laurel limb you cut back develops dieback visible from their side, or if the cut material lands in their garden and they dispute how it got there, a prior note shows you acted transparently and in good faith. Second, it gives them the opportunity to carry out the work themselves, which often produces a better result for both parties: the owner can cut from their side to a natural branch junction, while you can only cut to the boundary line, which sometimes leaves a stub that neither side finds attractive.

Keep the note brief: "I intend to cut back the hedge growth that overhangs my garden, to the boundary line, on or after [date]. You are welcome to carry out the work yourself before then, or to arrange collection of the cuttings when I am done." A dated copy in your records is sufficient.

Step 4: Mark the boundary line before you cut

Drive a cane at each end of the run you intend to cut, set a length of taut garden twine at the boundary line, and add a centre cane on runs over 5m to keep the line horizontal. If you are uncertain where your boundary runs, this is the moment to resolve that before picking up any cutting tool. The Land Registry title plan for your property gives a general boundary position (not a precise legal line, but workable for most CT10 gardens). More specific evidence comes from the original conveyance documents, any T or H marks on the filed title plan, or a boundary surveyor's report. Cutting beyond the boundary line onto your neighbour's land, even accidentally, is trespass, and cuts that damage growth beyond the boundary line can give rise to a claim for the value of the damaged plants.

On Victorian terrace rows in the Broadstairs CA and St Peter's CA, where gardens are separated by close-boarded fencing rather than a visible feature, the fence itself is normally a reliable guide to the boundary position. If the fence has been moved or is disputed, use the Land Registry plan before you cut.

Step 5: Cut back to the boundary line, working from your side only

Work from your side of the boundary at all times. You cannot lean a ladder over your neighbour's fence to rest on their side, or step onto their property to reach a high branch: either constitutes trespass even if you are cutting entirely to the boundary. Where overhanging growth is too high to reach safely from your side, that work should be done from your neighbour's side with their permission, or left as a job for a contractor with the right access equipment.

Tool choice matters for a clean result:

• Loppers for stems over 15mm diameter. Cut at a natural branch junction or node, not mid-stem. A mid-stem stub left by a lopper is slow to callus and often produces weak regrowth that is more difficult to manage in future years.
• Secateurs for fine growth, smaller stems and tidy-up cuts near junctions. On large-leaved species such as cherry laurel and Portuguese laurel, use secateurs rather than a hedge trimmer on any cutting you care about: trimmer blades slice through large leaves, leaving brown half-leaves on the cut face that brown over the following weeks.
• Hedge trimmer for fine-leaved growth (privet, Lonicera, box) where the overhang is growth from an established formal hedge rather than a large-stemmed informal screen. Keep the blade parallel to the boundary line you marked at Step 4.

Cut only to the boundary. You have no legal right to cut further into the hedge, to alter its height on your neighbour's side, or to cut back growth that does not cross your boundary, even if the hedge is unsightly or casts shade onto your garden. The common-law right is limited to the overhang on your side.

Step 6: Collect all cut material and offer it back to your neighbour

The cut growth belongs to the hedge's owner, not to you. This point is consistent across UK council guidance and is not widely understood: even though you carried out the work and the material is now on your side of the boundary, the cuttings remain your neighbour's property in law. You cannot dispose of them in your own green waste collection or take them to the tip without first offering them back.

In practice, most neighbours either collect the material promptly when offered or confirm in writing that you may dispose of it. Bag the cuttings and leave them at or inside their gate, or deliver them to their door with a note giving them a reasonable period, say 14 days, to arrange collection. If they do not collect and have not responded, send a brief written note before arranging disposal. Keep a copy of any written communication for your records.

For clifftop gardens where the cut material includes significant quantities of Escallonia, Griselinia, Leylandii or Cupressus: the Kent County Council household recycling centre in Margate Road accepts garden waste by appointment. Check current booking arrangements and accepted materials before disposal.

Step 7: Photograph the finished cut and keep a dated record

Step back 4-5m and photograph the cut face from your side. A date-stamped photograph showing the cut to your boundary line, the taut string line if still in place, and the pile of cuttings ready for collection provides a contemporaneous record of what was done and when. If a dispute arises later about the extent of cutting or about damage to the hedge, this record is materially more useful than a written account produced from memory.

Note the species, the approximate dimensions of what you cut back (height, depth from boundary), the tools used, and the date. A brief note in your phone or a photograph caption is sufficient. Keep it for at least two years.

What the common-law right does not cover

Reducing the height of the hedge. The common-law right covers overhang only: growth that has crossed from your neighbour's land onto yours. You cannot use it to cut the top of a hedge that is entirely on your neighbour's side, even if it shades your garden or blocks your light. Height reduction of a neighbour's hedge is a matter for the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 Part 8 process, which allows a formal complaint to Thanet District Council once the hedge exceeds 2m and causes a "actionable adverse effect" on your enjoyment of your property. The current TDC complaint fee is £650. That route is separate from this one and has its own criteria and process.

Entering your neighbour's land. Common law does not give you any right of access to your neighbour's property to carry out the work. Entering their garden without permission, leaning equipment over the boundary in a way that constitutes trespass, or cutting from their side while standing on their land is actionable. If the overhang cannot be safely reached from your side and your neighbour will not grant access, the alternative is to request that they carry out the work themselves, or in extreme cases, to apply to court for an injunction requiring them to do so.

Work to trees under a Tree Preservation Order. A TPO applies to the specific tree, not just to the part on the TPO-holder's land. Cutting any part of a TPO tree, including overhanging branches, without first obtaining consent from Thanet District Council may constitute a criminal offence under section 210 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. Contact TDC planning before doing any work to a tree you suspect may be subject to a TPO, even if the overhang is clearly on your side.

Overhanging hedges in Broadstairs conservation areas: the additional step

In the Broadstairs CA, St Peter's CA, Reading Street CA and Kingsgate CA, any work to a tree or woody shrub with a stem diameter over 75mm at 1.5m above ground level requires six weeks' advance notice to Thanet District Council under section 211 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. This applies whether the tree is in your garden, your neighbour's garden, or growing on the boundary between them.

For a hedge consisting of multiple closely spaced thin stems, each under 75mm diameter, the s.211 threshold is generally not reached and no notice is needed. For a mature Griselinia, Portuguese laurel or cherry laurel grown as a boundary hedge in the conservation area, individual stems may exceed 75mm after a decade or more of unmanaged growth. The safe approach is to measure before cutting. If you file a section 211 notice and TDC raises no objection within six weeks, you can proceed. If you cut without notice and a stem is over 75mm diameter, you may be subject to enforcement action, with fines of up to £2,500 per tree on summary conviction or an unlimited fine on indictment under section 210.

Note that the notification requirement applies even where the common-law overhang right exists: the two regimes run concurrently. You may have a right to cut back to the boundary, but that right does not override the conservation area requirement to notify TDC first where the stems are large enough to require it.

Sources: Royal Horticultural Society, "Trees and the law" (rhs.org.uk); Tunbridge Wells Borough Council, "Boundary trees" guidance; Town and Country Planning Act 1990, sections 210 and 211; Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, section 1; Land Registration Act 2002; Thanet District Council, conservation area pages and planning constraints map; Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003, Part 8.