Tree Preservation Order consent: checklist for tree works

A tree preservation order application checklist is really two checklists, because the two routes sit on different statutes and run on different clocks. Works to a tree covered by a Tree Preservation Order need the council's written consent before anything is cut, on an application that carries no fee. Works to an unprotected tree that happens to stand in a conservation area need six weeks' written notice instead, under section 211 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. Pick the wrong route and you have either waited for nothing or committed an offence. And most refusals turn on a weak reason for the works rather than on the works themselves, so the evidence comes first.

Establishing whether the tree is protected

Four things can protect a tree, and they are not alternatives. A Tree Preservation Order made under section 198 of the 1990 Act. The blanket protection that section 211 gives trees in a conservation area. A condition on a planning permission requiring a tree to be retained. And, for larger volumes of timber, the separate felling licence regime run by the Forestry Commission.

Start with the council's own Tree Preservation Order register and map layer, then ring the tree officer and ask them to confirm by reference number. A property search before purchase should have revealed any Order, so check the conveyancing file too.

Read the Order itself rather than the map thumbnail. Orders classify trees as individuals, groups, areas or woodlands, and the classification changes what you are applying about: an area designation protects the trees that stood there when the Order was made, which can be difficult to establish forty years later. Note the reference the schedule gives your tree, because the officer will look for it.

If the work involves felling more than five cubic metres of timber in a calendar quarter, of which no more than two cubic metres may be sold, a felling licence is needed on top of anything the council requires.

The application route for a protected tree

The form is the standard tree works application, submitted through the Planning Portal or the council's own system. There is no fee for either the application or a section 211 notice.

What to send with it:

1. The Order's title or number and the schedule reference for each tree.
2. A site plan with the tree positions marked and numbered to match.
3. Species, approximate height, and stem diameter measured at 1.5 metres above ground.
4. The works described in the vocabulary of BS 3998:2010, with figures: crown reduction stating the reduction in metres, crown lifting to a stated height, thinning as a percentage, or removal.
5. The reason for the works, with the evidence behind it.
6. Dated photographs from more than one angle, showing the whole tree and the specific defect or conflict.
7. Any arboricultural, structural or engineering report you are relying on.

The authority has eight weeks to decide. The practice guidance on tree preservation orders explains what follows if that period runs out without a decision, so read it before assuming either outcome.

Conservation area trees and the six week notice

Section 211 works the other way round. You tell the council what you intend to do, and the council has six weeks to either make a Tree Preservation Order or let the notice run its course. Silence at the end of six weeks means you may carry out the works as described, and you then have two years to do them.

The threshold matters. The 2012 Regulations exempt trees whose stem diameter does not exceed 75mm measured at 1.5 metres, and lift that to 100mm where the work is thinning to help the growth of other trees. Measure before you write, not after.

Describe the works precisely, because the notice only authorises what it describes. A notice for a crown reduction does not cover felling, and a contractor who goes further has exposed you to prosecution under section 210.

Describing the works and the reason for them

"Reduce the tree" is not a description. Neither is "cut back as necessary". Officers refuse vague notices because they cannot assess the effect on amenity, and because a vague consent is unenforceable.

Reasons that carry weight include documented structural damage, a crown in contact with the building, deadwood over a parking area or a footpath, disease confirmed by someone competent to diagnose it, and a subsidence claim supported by engineering evidence. Reasons that rarely carry weight on their own include leaves in gutters, shade on a lawn, bird droppings, fear in the abstract, and a general preference for more light.

The honest framing is a balance. The tree's amenity value, which is why the Order exists, sits against the harm or risk you are describing. So say what alternatives you considered and rejected: a smaller reduction, a different maintenance cycle, gutter guards, a root barrier. Officers notice when that thinking is absent.

Arboricultural evidence to support the case

For decay or structural defect, a visual assessment by an arboriculturist, with decay detection where the assessment cannot resolve it. Members of the Arboricultural Association can be found through its own register.

For subsidence, the package is larger: a structural engineer's report on the damage and its pattern, trial pit or borehole records, soil plasticity data, and root identification tying roots in the foundation zone to the species in question. Councils see a lot of subsidence applications that assert the tree is responsible without that chain of evidence, and those are the ones that come back refused.

For works tied to a building project, the document the officer expects is a tree survey to BS 5837:2012 with a tree constraints plan, root protection areas and an arboricultural method statement. If the scheme turns on how much tree cover is being lost, a worked calculation of canopy cover across a site is a more persuasive way to put it than an adjective. PlanScope can draft the supporting narrative around that survey, though the survey measurements themselves remain an arboriculturist's work.

Exemptions for dead and dangerous trees

The old shorthand of "dead, dying or dangerous" no longer matches the law. The 2012 Regulations narrowed it to dead trees, plus a separate exemption where work is urgently necessary to remove an immediate risk of serious harm.

For a dead tree, five days' written notice to the authority is required before the work starts. Where the urgency is genuine and immediate, notice is given as soon as practicable afterwards instead.

The burden of proving an exemption falls on whoever cut the tree, and it falls after the evidence has been destroyed. So gather it first: dated photographs from several angles, a written assessment by a competent person, and a note of who decided and when. A felling carried out on a verbal assurance that a tree was "basically dead" is the classic route to a section 210 prosecution, which carries a fine of up to £20,000 on summary conviction and an unlimited fine on indictment.

Replacement planting duties

Removing a protected tree under an exemption does not end the matter. Section 206 imposes a duty to plant a replacement tree of appropriate size and species, in the same place, as soon as the landowner reasonably can, and the replacement is automatically protected by the original Order. For woodland, the duty is to replant the same number of trees, not necessarily on the same spots.

The authority can dispense with the duty on application, and it is better to ask than to assume. If the duty is ignored, a tree replacement notice under section 207 can be served within four years, requiring the planting.

Appeals and timescales

An appeal against refusal, or against conditions you cannot live with, goes to the Secretary of State and is handled by the Planning Inspectorate. The deadline is 28 days from the date of the decision notice, there is no fee, and householder appeals of this kind are normally decided on written representations.

The 2012 Regulations also allow a narrow compensation claim where consent is refused or conditioned and loss follows, subject to exclusions and a time limit. Read the regulations before relying on it, because the exclusions remove most of the cases people assume are covered.

If the tree sits inside a wider project rather than standing alone, the tree work is only one document among several. Enter your postcode on PlanScope to see which of the 66 reports a site is likely to need, or look through the full list of report types first.

This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.