Almost 150 metres of hedgerow could be chopped down if plans submitted to Lichfield District Council are approved.
A local landowner has applied for permission to remove two sections at Streetway Farm in Shenstone to enable farming land to be viable after other plots were bought up to accommodate HS2.
A document supporting the application says that the controversial railway scheme has meant the existing fields are no longer suitable in their current guise.
“Following the acquisition of land to build HS2, the owner will be left with a reduction in the area of two fields of 3.82ha and 1.26ha.
“In order to enlarge these fields to make it economically viable to grow an arable crop, it is necessary to removal two sections of hedgerow totalling a length of 144 metres.”
Report on hedgerows at Streetway Farm
A report by an expert has said that both stretches of hawthorn were considered “not important under the Hedgerow Regulations 1997”.
Full details of the proposal are available on Lichfield District Council’s planning website.
