Urgent help - lavender

[APurpleSquirrel]

We live in a 10yr old new build - just had a letter from the developers (who finished & left the site at least 8 years ago) to say the local County Highways, who are in the process of adopting our road, have asked that all plants, shrubs & vegetation be trimmed if they overhang the areas marked on the map.
This is fine for one bed at the front of our house, but on the other we have a huge, wonderful lavender, that over the years has spread out over the boundary. If I prune it back to the boundary line will the lavender survive?
It's got to be done by 1st August otherwise the Council's contractor will do it.
Pic of lavender - boundary line is the thin grey paving between the tarmac & yellow paving - the lavender is planted close to the line but was obviously very small when it was first planted.

It's such a lovely plant, covered in bees atm & I'm devastated that it's going to have to be pruned so much at completely the wrong time of year for what is essentially a crappy triangle of dirt!
Any helpful suggestions?

You are not supposed to prune lavender too hard.
However I hack mine back to a stump every year and it thrives. Plus it self seeds everywhere so I have a constant supply of fresh plants.
Honestly I wouldn't consider it as particularly precious as it's so easy to replace.

Summer is the best time to take lavender cuttings, so why not take the opportunity to multiply your plants?

What if you dug it up and planted it in a huge, lovely pot, that you put in the same place? I think that's what I'd do.

Lovely lavender. It should survive if you don't cut it back to the woody bit. Would that be enough?

Which side needs to come off? The left hand or right hand side?

It's not totally clear from the pic but I think

a) it is english lavendar which is much more robust than french
b) the overhang is mostly soft greener growth

I'd cut it just back to boundary line. My guess it that it will look a bit odd for the rest of this year with a flat cut egde but will green up again next year.

I've hard cut eng lavendar back right into old wood, just 1/4 of the plant at a time and it's been absolutely fine and regrown ok.

Thanks all - I'm going to leave it till end of July in the hopes the bees can get the most from the flowers. Then cut it back - am hoping it's not woody but not sure - it's very big. Gets trimmed in spring, & bounces back but this is going to be pretty savage - & very lopsided! I'll have to cut the left-hand side, where the majority of growth/flowers are.
Will use the flowers & leaves in an oil infusion & try and take cuttings just in case it doesn't survive.

You own the ground the plant is in and most of the overhang looks like this years growth.
If you dont want to cut it
get 4 stakes and some wire / small fence eg www.poundland.co.uk/354772-black-garden-fence/

hammer a stake into each corner of the growing area and create a mini support which pulls the plant growth more upright and off the path.

Hmmm. I agree that its not the best time to be cutting it back (either aesthetically or from the plant's perspective) but lavender is really tough

I've got one plant that I thought I'd killed last year by cutting really really hard last autumn during some brutal 'landscaping' but it's now back to a compact bush again. I'm not a fan of massive sprawling lavenders, best to keep a nice trimmed Bush fnar fnar

Lavender in my garden which is sandyish but semi shady only seems tough and floriferous where it's in full sun. I suppose it depends on the type of course. But where I planted next to our neighbours ( I thought it was in full sun) it
hasn't done very well because I have to keep it trimmed because due to their fussiness. We're in mid west France.

The one right by the road ,and luckily our council aren't fussy, so I haven't trimmed it much at all is fantastic. A big pot is a good idea for yours.

Contact the council and tell them that it is full of bees, and you will cut it back as soon as it has finished flowering.

Bastard philistine council workmen can fuck off

I'd take it out completely. It won't like a hard cutback, they don't last forever and are relatively cheap to replace.

I agree with a previous poster. Can u not just wire around it so it is away from the boundary ? And let it down later

I've had a good look at the lavender now & definitely think we're going to have to dig it up - most of the growth including the woody bits are over the boundary line (marked with an arrow) & it's too big & inflexible for me to put in a fence or something to hold it up off the boundary.
Fortunately there is a sage right behind it which will fill in the space; but am going to try putting the lavender in a big pot & see what happens.
Any advice on potting medium for lavender?

They want good drainage and a fairly poor soil.

I did three lavender. Two in the ground and one in a huge huge pot. The two in the ground are doing brilliantly The one in the pot is dying. And the pot is huge.

I did the pot as I was supposed to 30% grit and the rest soil. Still didn’t work

This is my fear tbh - but I know the plant won't survive the pruning it would need to bring it within the boundary line; so transplanting it into a pot & taking cuttings seems the least worst option. Such a shame as it has been covered in bees all day.

I cut mine back to almost nothing around mid-August and it always comes back fine.

@APurpleSquirrel it really is. I’m leaving my one in the pot. Just to see what happens to it next year. But who knows.

Update - well tomorrow is D-Day so today we've dug up the huge lavender & put it in a 50cm diameter pot with the most rubbish soil we could find mixed with perlite & broken crockery & stones. We've moved it to a raised bed at the bottom of our garden we're it should be similar conditions to the front of the house.
Had some very confused bumblebees whilst we were moving it & after, but most seem to have rediscovered it.
Now fingers crossed it survives the move.
Thanks everyone.