Conservation area tree notices and the six-week rule

Trees in a conservation area are protected even without a Tree Preservation Order, and the protection works through a notice rather than an application. Section 211 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 requires six weeks' written notice to the council before carrying out works to a tree in a conservation area. Serve a conservation area tree notice, wait, and if nothing happens you may proceed.

Cutting first and asking afterwards carries the same penalties as breaching a Tree Preservation Order, which surprises people who assumed a conservation area only affected buildings.

What a section 211 notice covers

The duty applies to anyone proposing to cut down, top, lop, uproot, wilfully damage or wilfully destroy a tree in a conservation area, unless the tree is already covered by a Tree Preservation Order, in which case the separate consent procedure applies instead.

It covers work in your own garden. It covers work by a contractor you have engaged, and both of you can be liable. It applies to crown reduction and to lopping, so a heavy reduction on a mature sycamore needs the notice just as much as felling does.

Roots count as part of the tree. Excavating for a driveway or an extension in a way that severs major roots can amount to wilful damage, which is why tree work and groundworks in conservation areas need to be planned together.

Trees on a neighbour's land are the other trap. You have a common law right to cut back branches overhanging your boundary, but that right does not displace the notice requirement where the tree stands in a conservation area. The notice is still needed, and the material you remove still belongs to the tree's owner.

Diameter thresholds and exemptions

Not every tree is caught. The Town and Country Planning (Tree Preservation) (England) Regulations 2012 exempt trees below a stem diameter of 75 mm, measured at 1.5 m above ground level. A slightly larger threshold of 100 mm applies where the work is thinning to help the growth of other trees.

Measure before assuming. A multi-stemmed shrub can exceed the threshold on one stem, and a tree measured at ankle height will read very differently from one measured properly.

The other exemptions are narrower than people hope.

Photograph the tree before any work carried out under the dead or dangerous exemptions, from more than one angle and with something for scale. Without that record you are asserting a condition nobody else can now verify.

Filling in the notice so it is not rejected

The notice goes to the local planning authority, usually on its own form or through the national planning application service. It has to describe the work clearly enough that an officer can assess it.

1. A location plan showing the property, with each tree numbered.
2. The species of each tree, or a description if the species is uncertain.
3. The precise work proposed for each tree, using recognised terms such as crown reduction with a stated percentage or distance, crown lift to a stated height, or fell.
4. The reason for the work.
5. Any supporting evidence, such as an arboricultural report or a structural engineer's letter where subsidence is claimed.

"Prune trees in rear garden" will be returned. So will a notice that omits the plan. Each rejection restarts the six weeks, and on a scheme with a build programme attached that is the expensive part.

Where the trees relate to a development proposal, the work is better dealt with through an arboricultural report to BS 5837:2012 submitted with the planning application. The tree survey and arboricultural assessment covers the same trees in far more detail, and permission granted for the development can carry the tree works with it.

What the council can do in the six weeks

Three outcomes. The council can do nothing, in which case you may carry out the work at the end of the six weeks and for two years from the date of the notice. It can write to say it has no objection, which lets you start earlier. Or it can make a Tree Preservation Order, which stops the work and switches the tree into the consent regime.

Officers use the six weeks to visit, assess the tree's contribution to the character and appearance of the area, and decide whether it merits an Order. A well-reasoned notice with a professional report attached makes an unnecessary Order less likely, because the officer can see the work is justified.

Tree officers are stretched, and a notice that arrives with clear photographs, a plan and a stated reason takes them ten minutes instead of a site visit. That is worth doing for its own sake.

If an Order is made, you can apply for consent to carry out the works and object to the Order during the statutory objection period. The council's conservation area appraisal will often say which trees and green spaces it considers important, which tells you in advance how a notice is likely to be received.

Penalties for unauthorised works

Cutting down or destroying a tree in a conservation area without notice is an offence. On conviction in the magistrates' court the penalty is a fine, and on indictment the fine is unlimited. Lesser works carried out without notice are also an offence with a lower maximum.

There is a second consequence people overlook. A duty to plant a replacement tree of an appropriate size and species, in the same place, arises where a protected tree is removed. That duty attaches to the land and passes to a subsequent owner, so it can surface on a sale years later.

Courts have taken tree cases seriously where the loss was substantial and the motive commercial, and a contractor who felled on instruction is not automatically excused. Ask any contractor to confirm in writing that the notice has been served and the period has expired before they start.

An illustrative example. A homeowner in a conservation area wants a 25 per cent crown reduction on a mature lime overhanging the garden and removal of a self-seeded ash of 120 mm diameter. Both need a notice. The lime work needs a stated reduction figure, and the ash needs measuring rather than eyeballing. The notice is served on 1 March and, absent a Tree Preservation Order, the work may proceed from mid-April. Those figures are illustrative only.

Before starting any work near protected trees, check which reports your project needs and get the tree evidence in place first. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval, and for specialist technical reports qualified professional input may be required.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified arboriculturist before relying on it.