Is your tree protected?
As a tree owner you have a legal obligation to maintain and ensure its safety, therefore you must:
‘take reasonable care to avoid acts or omissions which they can reasonably foresee would be likely to injure their neighbour’
Did you also know that your tree could also be protected by planning?
Tree Preservation Orders (TPOs): TPOs are administered by your local Council in its role as the Local Planning Authority (LPA) and are made to protect trees that provide a significant amenity benefit to the area.
All species of tree can be protected (but not hedges, bushes or shrubs), and a TPO can protect anything from a single tree to all trees within a defined area or woodland – but no species is automatically protected by a TPO (not even an Oak!).
A TPO makes it a criminal offence to cut down, top, lop, uproot, wilfully damage or wilfully destroy a tree protected by that order, or to cause or permit such actions, without the authority’s permission.
Anyone found guilty of such an offence is liable to prosecution, and an unlimited fine can be imposed for destroying or removing a protected tree without consent from the LPA. To make an application to carry out works to a protected tree you will need to complete an application form and submit it to the LPA.
Conservation Areas: If a tree in a Conservation Area you have to give six weeks prior written notice to the LPA (by letter, email or on the LPA’s form) of any proposed work, describing what you want to do. This gives the LPA an opportunity to consider protecting the tree with a TPO.
Normal TPO procedures apply if the tree is already protected by a TPO. You do not need to give notice if the tree is less than 7.5 centimetres in diameter, measured 1.5 metres above the ground (or 10 centimetres if thinning to help the growth of other trees).
Other things to consider…
Felling Licences: Felling Licences are administered by the Forestry Commission. You do not need a licence to fell trees in gardens. For trees outside gardens, however, you may need to apply to the Forestry Commission for a felling licence, whether or not they are covered by a TPO.
You can find out more about felling licences from the Forestry Commission website www.forestry.gov.uk
Restrictive Covenants: A restrictive covenant is a promise by one person to another, (such as a buyer of land and a seller) not to do certain things with the land or property.
It binds the land and not an individual owner.
This means that the restrictive covenant continues over the land or property even when the current owner(s) sells it to another person.
Covenants or other restrictions in the title of a property or conditions in a lease may require the consent of a third party prior to carrying out some sorts of tree work, including removing trees and hedges.
This may be the case even if TPO, CA and felling licence regulations do not apply. In such cases it may be advisable to consult a solicitor.
How we can help.
We have a wealth of experience in dealing with trees and planning here at Beechwood Trees and Landscapes Ltd and would be pleased to assist you with advice and submission of applications if required.
It is recommend that you use an accredited ARB Approved Contractor such as us, who has been vetted and approved by the Arboricultural Association.
Please contact us for more information:
