Routine cuts done properly, on every species Thanet actually grows.

What's included

• Top, sides and front face cut to your chosen height and width
• All arisings cleared from site and disposed of properly (EA upper-tier waste-carrier registration; Manston Road HWRC CT9 4LR or Richborough CT13 9NW)
• Brush-down of the path, drive or terrace underneath
• Six-week section-211 notice filed on your behalf if your address is in a Thanet CA and the hedge has any stems over 75mm at 1.5m, see the CA rules guide
• Fixed price quoted in advance: no day-rate creep
• Cross-town scheduling for multi-address landlords: one visit run, one invoice

Timing by species

The best window depends on what you're growing, and on the coast, on the salt-wind exposure. See the chalk-and-salt species matrix for the full framing.

• Privet, escallonia, euonymus japonicus, griselinia: the workhorse coastal set. Two cuts a year is standard: late spring (before summer letting), late summer (after nesting closes).
• Tamarix: Thanet's classic seafront species. Cut hard in late winter; feathers back beautifully by June.
• Holm oak (Quercus ilex): the salt-line evergreen. Slow-growing; a light annual reshape in September.
• Hawthorn: winter only (Sep-Feb) to comply with nesting law. Fine on the coast.
• Beech, hornbeam, yew, cherry laurel: inland only (Minster, Manston, Monkton, Acol, Sarre). Single late-summer cut for beech and hornbeam; late-August for yew; late summer for laurel with secateurs on visible faces to avoid bruising.
• Leylandii and thuja: where they exist (mostly the older Westwood/Haine estate boundaries). Two cuts a year, and honest conversation about whether they should stay.

Nesting-window discipline

1 March – 31 August is the main nesting season under Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 s.1. Fines up to £5,000 per offence. On Thanet the coast belt is inside the Thanet Coast & Sandwich Bay SPA / Ramsar / Thanet Coast SAC: nesting rules are enforced. Standard practice: cut outside the window. Inside the window, only after a competent visual nest check confirms no active nests.

What I don't do on cutting jobs

If a hedge needs more than a routine cut: it's overgrown, gappy, leaning, or has outgrown the position: that's a reduction job, not a cut. I'll say so at quote stage rather than do a botched cut and pretend it solved the problem.