Trees and Arboriculture – Page 6
BS 5837 tree surveys, root protection, method statements and Tree Preservation Orders.
Trees and Arboriculture articles – page 6
262 articlesWoodland Orders, felling licences and how they interact
Where a felling licence is required in a woodland covered by a Tree Preservation Order, the licence route takes over and the forestry authority consults the council.
Discharging a tree protection condition without delay
A tree protection condition is satisfied by evidence that the exclusion zone existed before work started. Submit the package in the order the tree officer reads it.
Specifying crown work so a contractor prices it correctly
A percentage reduction is the commonest defect in a tree works specification. Naming the BS 3998 operation and giving dimensions makes quotations comparable and keeps the works inside your consent.
Street trees, crossovers and highway works
A street tree belongs to the highway authority, not to planning. Here is why dropped kerb refusals happen and which design changes get consent instead.
Shading and overhang as reasons to prune a protected tree
Councils refuse felling for shading and grant proportionate reductions. Here is how the amenity balance works and how to specify works that get consent.
Compensation when consent for tree works is refused
Compensation after a TPO refusal is narrower than landowners expect. Here is what is recoverable, the threshold and time limit, and the alternatives worth trying first.
The duty to replace a protected tree after felling
Remove a tree covered by a TPO and a replacement duty usually follows automatically, falling on the landowner. Here is the species, size, timing and enforcement picture.
Decay detection and structural assessment of a retained tree
Decay detection is a narrow investigation, not a development survey. Here is when it is justified, what each method can and cannot measure, and how to report it.
Tree surveys where a high hedge complaint is live
Two or more evergreens over two metres forming a barrier to light. That is the test, and it is a council complaint rather than a planning application, with limits on what the outcome can be.
Recording a tree as category U and what follows
A category U classification takes a tree off the constraints plan, which is exactly why tree officers test it. What the standard actually says and what evidence supports it.
Trees and highway visibility splays: resolving the conflict
Highway visibility and tree retention collide at the access on a surprising number of schemes. The resolution is almost always in the splay geometry rather than in the planning balance.
Crown lifting, reduction and thinning explained
Cut back, tidy up and reduce by 30 per cent all mean different things to different people. The recognised pruning terms, what each one does to a tree, and how to write a specification that gets approved.
Establishment maintenance periods in landscape conditions
Most developers price the planting and not the five years that follow it. What the establishment obligation covers, how long it runs, and how the duty passes when the site is sold.
Tree species selection for development sites
Species choice on a development site is governed by soil, rooting volume and exposure long before appearance. Here is how to specify stock, provenance and diversity so the planting is still there in year ten.
Tree works in the curtilage of a listed building
Trees are not buildings, so listed building consent is not the control that applies to them. Tree Preservation Orders, conservation area notice, planning conditions and the setting duty are. Here is the order to check them in.
Woodland Tree Preservation Orders and how they work
A woodland order protects every tree in the mapped area, including those that grow later. Thinning is possible, and a granted felling licence takes precedence over the order.
Surveying trees on land you cannot access
Offsite trees constrain your plot whether or not you can measure them. Estimate precautionarily, record every limitation, and design with a buffer beyond the plotted root protection area.
Tree constraints plan against tree protection plan
One drawing shapes the design, the other instructs the contractor. Producing them in the wrong order, or merging them, is why arboricultural conditions get refused at discharge.
Discharging a tree replacement planting condition
Discharge needs a specification precise enough to enforce and evidence that matches it. The detail officers look for, the planting season trap and the failure clause.
Tree shading and when pruning is justified
Councils prune protected trees far more often than they fell them. What shading evidence actually works, why cyclical management is the usual outcome, and where the high hedge route applies.
Subsidence claims and removing a protected tree
A general statement that trees cause subsidence on clay is not evidence. The case has to link this tree to this damage at this property, and heave risk cuts the other way.
Veteran trees and the buffer expected around them
National policy treats ancient and veteran trees as irreplaceable habitat, and deterioration counts as harm. The buffer is the mechanism, and it constrains layouts early.
Bat roost potential recorded during a tree survey
A note about roost features on a tree survey can move a programme by a season. What the categories mean, when emergence surveys can run, and how licensing works.
Which arboricultural method statement sections get conditioned
Only part of an arboricultural method statement ever becomes enforceable. Here are the sections councils turn into conditions, and how to write them so they still work on site two years later.
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