The ivy will always grow back vigorously, so you'll always have to keep hacking at it, or get rid of it completely.

Woodbine, the common honeysuckle may be competition for the ivy,

I don't think I could take it out as its a boundary plus I have read that the flowers are the last chance in the year of nectar. I will plant honeysuckles and hope that they are prolific flowering. There's a certain German supermarket beginning with A that does very cheap climbers in the spring . The hedge is South west facing and gets sun almost all day.

Personally, I'd get rid of the ivy which can be a nuisance at the best of times. I'd replace it with Japanese Honeysuckle which is evergreen and whose yellow/cream flowers have a fantastic fragrance in summer. But it will need support as it needs something to twine around in order to climb, eg a chain-link fence is ideal. That particular honeysuckle is very vigorous so needs to be watched so that it doesn't reach areas where it isn't desired. But training it as it grows and simple pruning will keep it in order.

Barbara said she can't remove it unfortunately. A good way of keeping ivy in check is to cut sme of the stems through near the base and then pull out the dead branches a few months later - hoping that they don't also pull out the honeysuckle! You can also cut it well back after flowering and fruiting if you can get at it. I trim ours like that and it always flowers again.