Isle of Thanet · CT8 · CT9 · CT10 · CT11 · CT12
Cutting, reduction, removal and planting across Margate, Broadstairs, Ramsgate, Westgate, Birchington and the rural fringe. Fully insured. I plan around the bird-nesting window (1 March – 31 August). Six-week conservation-area notice handled for you. Chalk-and-salt species knowledge that most contractors from outside Thanet don't have.
What I do
Specified for Thanet's thin chalk, its salt-laden coastal wind, the Article 4 HMO belt across the district, and the CA rules that cover most of Margate Old Town, Cliftonville, Ramsgate centre, Broadstairs Old Town, Westgate and Birchington Square.
Annual or twice-yearly cuts on privet, escallonia, euonymus, holly, laurel, hawthorn and holm oak. Clean lines, arisings cleared to the Manston Road or Richborough HWRC, no power tools after 6pm.
See timing & scopeBringing overgrown hedges back into proportion, including the Leylandii that shouldn't have gone in coastal in the first place, and the wind-scorched laurel walls around the Westwood and Haine estates. Staged where the species needs it.
How reduction worksFull removal with grinder access, root-ball lift where it's worth saving, and chalk reinstatement. On rural fringe plots the Hedgerow Regs 1997 apply — checked before quoting.
What removal involvesThe right species for chalk-and-salt Thanet — escallonia, griselinia, tamarix, holm oak on the coast; hornbeam and yew inland at Minster and Manston. An honest steer against Leylandii and beech where they can't survive.
Plan a new hedgeStanding offer
No payment until you've walked the hedge with me and you're happy. If I haven't done what I said I'd do, I put it right or you owe me nothing. No deposits, no upfront, no chasing.
Anyone on a state pension, automatically. No card, no proof of anything — just mention it when you book. Honour system. Thanet's a much older-than-average district and it's the right thing to do.
Used me before? Your next job over £500 gets 10% off, no time limit, no asking. Logged when the quote goes out — you don't need to remind me. Particularly useful for landlords holding across multiple towns.
Why chalk-and-salt matters
The peninsula sits on the Margate Chalk Member — a thin, sharply alkaline free-draining topsoil (pH 7.5-8.2) with Thanet Sand Formation over it in patches (the geological type section is at Pegwell Bay). Manston records around 569mm rainfall a year — bottom decile UK. And roughly 1,700 hours of sunshine, one of the sunniest belts on the British mainland. That means droughty summers, wind-blasted salt-laden coastal edges, and a completely different species matrix from inland Kent.
Beech and hornbeam scorch on the cliff-edge plots. Leylandii wind-rocks on the shallow chalk topsoil within a decade. What thrives on the exposed coast — escallonia, griselinia, tamarix, holm oak, euonymus — sits at the wrong end of most contractors' species lists. Get it right and the hedge is happy for fifty years. Get it wrong and it's a call-back every two.
In a Thanet conservation area?
Margate Old Town + Seafront. Cliftonville's eight CAs (Dalby Square, Clifton Place/Grotto Gardens, Cliftonville Clifftop, Edgar Rd/Sweyn Rd, Ethelbert Rd/Athelstan Rd, Norfolk Rd/Suffolk Rd and Northdown Rd). Ramsgate town centre plus Royal Esplanade and Montefiore. Broadstairs Old Town (2018). Westgate-on-Sea's three CAs. Birchington Square (designated July 2024). Minster historic core. If any stem in your hedge is over 75mm at 1.5m you need six weeks' notice to TDC. I file the s.211 notice on your behalf — included in every quote.
District hub, town-deep spokes
Thanet Hedges is the district-scale reference — Article 4 map, CA six-week notice, chalk-and-salt species matrix, nesting/hedgehog/SPA rules, Manston Road and Richborough HWRC logistics. For town-deep specifics — a Cliftonville CA street guide, a Ramsgate seafront tamarisk stagger, a Broadstairs old-town yew note — the sibling sites go deeper on the postcode.
Old Town CA, eight Cliftonville CAs, front-garden privet and escallonia, DFL absentee-owner logistics.
margatehedges.co.uk (coming soon)Old Town CA (2018), quiet Victorian villas, mature holly and yew standards, cliff-top exposure at Kingsgate.
broadstairshedges.co.uk (coming soon)Town centre + Royal Esplanade + Montefiore CAs, harbour-edge tamarix walls, Victorian terrace privet lines.
ramsgatehedges.co.uk (coming soon)Recent work
A running log of jobs across Thanet — Margate to Minster, Ramsgate seafront to the Manston fringe. Updated as I finish them.
Send a couple of photos and a postcode. Same-day fixed price and the next available date. Multi-property landlords: one enquiry, all addresses.