A RETENTION notice placed on a 110-metre long hedgerow near Pembroke has been lifted.

Roger Morris successfully appealed against the notice issued by Pembrokeshire County Council in August.

The council determined the hedgerow – at Southern Fields, Maidenwells - as important because it was a likely habitat for foraging and commuting bats and its proximity to a Special Area of Conservation.

This view was based on the results of an ecological survey carried out in 2011 for the Maidenwells bypass.

But planning inspector, Iwan Lloyd, concluded that the council’s decision was based on insufficient evidence.

He allowed the appeal and quashed the hedgerow retention notice.