United Kingdom 
My daughter has got a privet hedge and I thinned our half to half the width and now wondering if I should have waited till the new year. she lives in Sheffield.
I have done half and if I shouldn't have done it I won't do the other half. (of course it looks ugly now!)....
thank you for the answer
Marianne Wylie
30 Oct, 2017
Hi, welcome to GoY, don't worry, you can cut back privet any time, by as much as you want, it won't put much growth on [if any] until spring anyway now, so go ahead and prune as much as you like, it will still come back into growth as normal in spring, Derek.
30 Oct, 2017