Tree surveys for demolition-only proposals

Demolition does not switch off tree protection. If anything it raises the risk, because demolition sites are run by contractors working to a clearance programme with no landscape drawing to work from, and the protected lime on the boundary is simply where the crane needs to stand.

Two points decide the position. Whether the demolition itself needs permission or only prior approval, and whether any tree affected is protected by a Tree Preservation Order or by conservation area status. The two questions are independent, and a landlord clearing a site under prior approval has no tree works exemption at all.

What demolition needs and what it does not

Demolition of a building is development. Permitted development rights in Schedule 2 Part 11 of the General Permitted Development Order 2015 cover it, subject to prior approval from the local planning authority of the method of demolition and the proposed restoration of the site.

Four situations take you outside that:

1. A listed building, where demolition needs listed building consent and the criminal offence provisions apply.
2. Demolition in a conservation area, which is relevant demolition requiring planning permission in its own right for most buildings.
3. A scheduled monument, where scheduled monument consent is needed.
4. Buildings excluded from the Part 11 rights by their own terms, which is why the Order needs reading rather than remembering.

The prior approval route is a light-touch consent about method and restoration. It is not a planning permission granted on a full application, and that distinction is what removes the tree works exemption.

Prior notification and its scope

The prior approval application asks for the method of demolition and the restoration of the site. That is the whole scope, and it is narrower than people assume.

It does not authorise tree works. It does not authorise a site compound on adjoining land. It does not settle highway matters, hours of working or dust, though the authority may condition those in its approval. And it does not carry any implied authority over protected trees, because the exemption in the tree preservation regulations attaches to full planning permissions granted on application.

So the sequence for a treed demolition site is this. Establish protection status first, from the authority's Order plan rather than a verbal answer. Apply for consent under the Order for any works to protected trees, allowing eight weeks. Serve a section 211 notice for works to trees in a conservation area that are not covered by an Order, allowing six weeks. Only then submit the demolition method statement, with the tree position reflected in it.

Where consent is needed for crown work to allow plant access, specify it in terms the tree officer can approve rather than as a general request, which is covered in specifying crown reduction so the tree officer agrees.

Scaffold, hoarding and crane positions

This is where the damage actually happens, and none of it appears on a demolition method statement unless someone asks for it.

Scaffold needs a footprint and a tie zone, and on a boundary wall coming down it needs to stand somewhere. Hoarding needs foundations, usually either driven posts or ballasted bases, both of which sit in the root protection area if the hoarding follows the site boundary. Crane and excavator positions need bearing capacity, which means either a load-spread mat or a piled base.

Take each of these and check it against the root protection areas on the constraints drawing. For anything that lands inside one, the options are to move it, to design a no-dig solution using a three-dimensional cellular system over a geotextile and granular layer, or to apply for consent to remove the tree. A tree survey prepared before the demolition method statement lets you do that check on paper rather than on site.

Crown work for crane oversail deserves a separate mention. An oversailing jib does not touch the tree, but the load path and the slew radius often do, and a contractor who discovers this on the morning of the lift will prune first and ask later.

Root damage from tracked plant

Compaction is the injury that does not show for three years. A tracked 20 tonne machine crossing a root protection area on wet clay destroys soil structure to a depth that no amount of later mulching repairs, and the tree dies slowly enough that nobody connects it to the demolition.

Ground protection is the answer and it has to be specified rather than left to the contractor:

1. A geotextile separation layer laid on the existing surface without excavation.
2. A granular or cellular load-spread layer of adequate depth for the plant being used.
3. A running surface, whether interlocking mats, scaffold boards on the granular layer, or proprietary track panels.
4. A single defined haul route, fenced, rather than free movement across the site.

The specification depends on the machine weight and the soil, so it belongs in an arboricultural method statement signed by an arboriculturist, not in a line on the demolition drawing.

Note that existing hard surfacing within a root protection area is often the best available protection. Leaving a slab in place through the demolition phase and removing it only when the new layout is being built is frequently better for the tree than clearing everything at once.

Protecting trees on a cleared site

A demolition site that then sits vacant for eighteen months is a particular risk, and one that landlords underestimate.

Protective fencing installed for the demolition phase gets removed when the contractor leaves. The site is then open to fly-tipping, bonfires, vehicle parking on root protection areas and unauthorised clearance by whoever has keys. Trees on a cleared site also become more exposed to wind, and a tree that grew in the shelter of a building can fail after the building goes.

Four measures worth building into the programme. Keep the protective fencing up between phases, with a condition or a contractual obligation naming who maintains it. Include the retained trees in the site security arrangements. Commission a post-demolition tree inspection specifically addressing newly exposed crowns and root plates. And where a tree has been relying on the demolished building for shelter, consider a phased crown reduction to reduce sail area, applied for properly under the Order.

Interim protection before redevelopment

The gap between demolition and redevelopment is where protection is weakest, because no planning permission is in force and no conditions apply.

Two mechanisms help. Where a redevelopment permission already exists, the arboricultural conditions attach to it and can be discharged early, which puts an approved tree protection plan in place before demolition begins. Where no permission exists, ask the authority's tree officer whether it intends to make a Tree Preservation Order on trees that the demolition exposes, and treat a yes as a reason to secure them properly rather than as a threat.

For a landlord holding the site as an investment, the interim position is worth documenting formally. An agreed tree protection plan, held on file with photographs and a monitoring record, is what answers an enforcement query two years later when a neighbour complains that the row of limes has gone.

Recording condition before and after

The record is the protection. Without it, any later dispute about whether the demolition damaged a tree is unresolvable, and the burden tends to fall on the landowner.

Take a photographic record before any plant arrives, dated and located, covering each retained tree from at least two positions, plus the ground surface within each root protection area. Repeat it after demolition and again after site clearance.

Then keep a written monitoring record through the works: fencing checks, any incursion, any works carried out, any damage observed and what was done about it. The form this takes and what the tree officer expects to see in it is set out in the arboricultural site monitoring record.

Where damage has occurred, report it rather than waiting for it to be noticed. A landowner who reports root severance and proposes remedial works is in a much better position than one whose tree dies in year three and is then asked why nobody noticed. And where a tree is lost, the replacement obligation and the specification that satisfies it are covered in replacement planting conditions after tree loss.

Enter your postcode on PlanScope to see which tree and site reports your demolition proposal is likely to need.

This is general guidance rather than legal advice. Damaging a protected tree is a criminal offence, so check the protection status and the position with your local planning authority's tree officer or a qualified arboriculturist before any work starts. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.