Tree Preservation Orders

A Tree Preservation Order (TPO) is made by the local planning authority to protect specific trees or particular woodland from deliberate damage and destruction. TPO's prevent the felling, lopping, topping, uprooting or otherwise wilful damaging of trees without the permission of the local planning authority.

Full guidance on TPO's is available from the Department for Communities and Local Government.

Anyone proposing to cut down or carry out work on trees in a conservation area is required to give the Council six weeks' prior notice (a 'section 211 notice'). The purpose of this requirement is to give the Council an opportunity to consider whether a Tree Preservation Order (TPO) should be made in respect of the tree. There are some exemptions to this rule including for work carried out by, or on behalf of, the District Council and for work on a tree with a diameter not exceeding 75mm (or 100mm if cutting down trees to improve the growth of other trees, i.e. thinning operations).The Council cannot refuse consent.  Nor can it grant consent subject to conditions (such as a condition requiring the planting of a replacement tree).  It must deal with a section 211 notice in one of three ways:

1. Make a TPO if justified in the interests of amenity. The proposed works to the tree would then have to be the subject of a formal application under the TPO;
2. Decide not to make a TPO and allow the six week period to expire, at which point the proposed work may go ahead as long as it is carried out within two years from the date of the notice, or
3. Decide not to make a TPO and inform the applicant that the work can go ahead.

TPOs can also be made by the Local Planning Authority in respect of trees or woodlands outside conservation area.  The principal effect of a TPO is to prohibit the:

1. cutting down,
2. uprooting,
3. topping,
4. lopping,
5. wilful damage, or
6. wilful destruction of trees without the LPAs consent.

TPOs cannot be applied to bushes or shrubs, although in the Secretary of State's view a TPO may be made to protect trees in hedges or an old hedge which has become a line of trees of a reasonable height and is not subject to hedgerow management.

Councils may make a TPO if it appears to them to be: 'expedient in the interests of amenity to make provision for the preservation of trees or woodlands in their area'.  The legislation does not define 'amenity', nor does it prescribe the circumstances in which it is in the interests of amenity to make a TPO.  In the Secretary of State's view, TPOs should be used to protect selected trees and woodlands if their removal would have a significant impact on the local environment and its enjoyment by the public.  Councils should be able to show that a reasonable degree of public benefit would accrue before TPOs are made or confirmed.  The trees, or at least part of them, should therefore normally be visible from a public place, such as a road or footpath, although, exceptionally, the inclusion of other trees may be justified.  The benefit may be present or future; trees may be worthy of preservation for their intrinsic beauty or for their contribution to the landscape or because they serve to screen an eyesore or future development; the value of trees may be enhanced by their scarcity; and the value of a group of trees or woodland may be collective only.  Other factors, such as importance as a wildlife habitat, may be taken into account which alone would not be sufficient to warrant a TPO.  In the Secretary of State's view, it would be inappropriate to make a TPO in respect of a tree which is dead, dying or dangerous.

For more information on tree protection in planning you may wish to refer to the government document Tree Preservation Orders: A Guide to the Law and Good Practice.

You can establish if a tree is protected by TPO by contacting the Council's Customer Service team on 01858 828282 or by searching for constaints at a property via Public Access.