My neighbour chopped down my bay trees. Is this criminal damage?

[Yabbadabbadooooooo]

I trimmed a hedge between our properties, only from my side of the garden. The hedge between us is high as I haven’t got long handled loppers so I took a year’s growth off. I just came home from a day out and the neighbour has chopped down two of my bay trees in retaliation! The hedge is meant to be trimmed, it’s part of the lease. He intentionally came on to my property to chop down the two trees that frame the front door entrance my house. Can I call the police? Is this trespassing? Criminal damage? Thank you so much for any legal input. Our children are all at the same school and our kids are so upset.

I had a bramble and climber hedge in my garden and birds definitely nested in it. I had to wait until autumn to replace it, between nesting time and when they needed it to shelter. You can't trim hedges whenever you want if there are birds nesting in it. It is illegal to deliberately disturb wild birds or destroy their nests.

You can cut hedges during nesting season but you must check the length of the whole hedgerow for birds, nests and eggs. If you find any, you cannot cut or trim that hedgerow and you must follow your responsibilities under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

Birds in hedges depends on the type/size of hedge and where it is.

Unlikely in a 4ft squared off box around an urban garden - very likely in a 12ft + mixed species hedge around a field. That said, still worth checking, my passionflower and ivy (so not even a hedge more a heap thats fallen over from next door) has a robin one end and a wren the other!

But even so... nothing warrents illegal revenge!

Yes but that’s not the same as never trimming a hedge in nesting season, even when there is no nest in it (as applies to trees?)

Trees are not disturbed in nesting season as a flat rule. The same rule does not apply to hedges.

of course if you see a nest you wouldn’t disturb it.

Of course birds nest in hedges, we have blue tits in our Laurel, and robins and other birds in our Fir hedges.

WTF? Mumsnet gets more nuts by the day.
I'll be back in a mo, just off to tell the blackbird in the hedge by the front door to fuck off, they're in the wrong place.....
I'll fire off an email to the RSPB while I'm at it, dickheads have a whole page about birds nesting in hedges. The fools.

Go over, ask why he's done it, but secretly record on your phone so you have admission.

I'm assuming you don't live rurally 😂

Evidence?

i do actually, although admittedly don’t have field hedgerows in my garden.

i do work for a companies that spends millions
every year on landscaping and gardening hundreds of thousands of properties and hedge trimming never stops in nesting season. Tree maintenance obviously does

Tonnes of birds nest in our hedges and wanker neighbour just cleared an entire hedge.

I'd be very upset if you'd cut a communal hedge back in nesting season.

I’d be knocking on his door and telling him what a tw*t he is. How pathetic, hedges are supposed to be trimmed annually, so pathetic to retaliate in that way. Police might have a word at a push, but unfortunately nothing that will be done about it.

Housing crisis you see. All those foreign bird coming over here, getting put up in fancy trees while our British birds are forced to slum it in hedges.

Cheers Starmer, blackbirds are crying now.

Well yes, but cutting down bay trees , which may also be home to birds, is not better.

Well they had better be careful - if they damage or destroy an active nest they can be prosecuted. Doesn't matter where the nest is - tree, hedge, ground, cliff - they are all protected.

Loads of birds nest in hedges ! Blackbirds, Hedge Sparrows, Various tits, Wrens, Robins and many more all nest in hedges.

They are

how do you know it was your neighbour?

also are you saying that you chopped the top of the hedge off? How much shorter is it now?

Yes they do! There are two nests in the hedge between us and our neighbours!

Regardless, it's safe to say the neighbour doesn't care a bit about birds or he wouldn't have chopped the trees.

OP, can you prove it's the neighbour? Have you got a ring doorbell?

Yes he admitted it. We live in a very rural area. There is a high hedge between our gardens. Our landlady lives to one side and we are in a semi detached, the neighbour owns his half and we rent ours. There are sea views. We are in Devon. He has said before it’s fine to take the top off the hedge and the landlady next door has also asked us to keep the hedge down as she also needs sea views. I didn’t take much off and only from my side. He came onto our property and beheaded our bay trees which were outside our front door.

What hedges are you growing that can't cope with a few months not being trimmed?

Robins and many other small birds have a preference for nesting nearer the ground, often in hedges. They don't usually nest in trees. Please make sure any hedges are carefully and thoroughly checked for nests before trimming them.

Try and record him again admitting it, using an app on your phone.

Of course birds nest in hedges!!!

Could we possibly try to stick to OPs question.