Trees and Arboriculture – Page 9
BS 5837 tree surveys, root protection, method statements and Tree Preservation Orders.
Trees and Arboriculture articles – page 9
262 articlesOverhanging branches and the right of abatement
Cutting overhanging branches is a common law right, not a favour your neighbour grants. What the limits are, and why a protected tree reverses the advice.
Securing tree protection through conditions and bonds
A condition cannot lawfully require the payment of money, so a tree bond belongs in a section 106 and has to meet the statutory tests. What that means in practice.
Trees with bat roost potential on development sites
A sound, unprotected tree can still stop a scheme for four months because of a lifted bark flake. What roost potential means and how the assessment route works.
Designing a layout around an ancient woodland buffer
The standing advice recommends at least 15 metres between development and ancient woodland. Here is how to measure it, what the buffer can contain and how to keep it intact.
Evidencing canopy cover targets in a local plan area
Canopy cover policies are won or lost on the assumptions behind the percentage. Here is how to set the horizon, justify crown spreads, count retained trees and show the soil volume.
Street trees, highway works and the section 278 process
A street tree in the adopted highway is the highway authority's, and planning permission gives no right to touch it. Consent, replacement policies, tree pit design and how the arrangements are secured in a section 278 agreement.
When shading by trees becomes a planning consideration
Tree shade gives no civil claim and councils cannot act on an existing tree that darkens a garden. It becomes a planning matter when a development proposal is involved, and it cuts both ways.
Describing tree works correctly on an application
Tree applications fail on wording more often than on merits. Here is how to specify reductions, crown lifts, thinning and deadwooding so a tree officer can grant the consent and check the work afterwards.
What a winter tree survey can and cannot tell you
A January tree survey produces a usable constraints plan. What it cannot assess, which trees need a summer revisit, and how councils treat caveated reports.
Identifying veteran trees and setting the right buffer
Veteran status turns on features, not age. What to record, how the standing advice buffer is calculated, and what counts as deterioration years after completion.
Felling licences and where planning permission overlaps
A felling licence and planning consent are separate permissions. The exemptions, the 5 cubic metre allowance, restocking conditions and how the two regimes interact.
High hedges complaints under the 2003 Act
Part 8 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 covers lines of evergreens over two metres, and nothing else. What the definition excludes, and what a remedial notice can and cannot require.
Tree protection fencing and the construction exclusion zone
Tree protection fails on site, not on the drawing. What the exclusion zone covers, what the default barrier actually is, and how to vary it without breaching the condition.
Ash dieback and the duty on landowners
Infected ash fails brittly and often without warning. What a proportionate inspection regime looks like, when felling is exempt from licence, and what a tree preservation order still requires.
Timing a tree survey: what can be done in winter
Arboricultural surveys are not seasonally locked in the way bat surveys are. Winter costs you vitality assessment and some species identification, and gives you a clear view of structure.
Felling licences and the exemptions that apply
Five cubic metres a quarter, gardens, small diameters and felling needed to implement a planning permission. The exemptions do most of the work, and getting them wrong is an offence.
Nesting birds and the practical tree work calendar
The offence relates to a nest in use, not to a date in the calendar. That distinction decides whether a site can be cleared in July and what evidence a contractor needs to hold.
Checking trees for bat roost features before felling
A tree with a woodpecker hole or lifting bark may hold a roost. Assessing it properly before felling is a legal obligation, not a courtesy.
Sequencing tree conditions on a development site
Tree conditions have a sequence, and most of it happens before anything is built. Getting the order wrong turns a discharge application into an enforcement conversation.
Objecting to a new tree preservation order
A provisional tree preservation order binds you from the day it is made. Objections must arrive within the period stated in the notice, and only some arguments carry weight.
Hedgerows and trees in the statutory biodiversity metric
Hedgerow units sit in their own module and cannot be met with area habitat. That single rule decides more biodiversity net gain outcomes on small sites than anything else.
High hedges complaints and the Anti-social Behaviour Act
The high hedges regime is separate from tree preservation orders and from planning. It covers evergreen hedges over two metres, and the council can only act after you have tried to settle it yourself.
Trees, clay soils and subsidence in planning terms
Subsidence is one of the few arguments that will persuade a council to allow a protected tree to be felled, and it is also the one most often made without the evidence to support it.
Ancient woodland buffers and the standing advice
Ancient woodland is irreplaceable habitat and the buffer starts at 15 metres. This covers boundary verification, the indirect effects that decide applications, and the buffer arrangements that survive occupation.
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