Trees in a conservation area that also have a TPO

If your tree is in a conservation area and also covered by a Tree Preservation Order, the Order wins and the conservation area notice procedure does not apply. You make a formal application for consent, you wait up to eight weeks, and you have a right of appeal if the council refuses. The conservation area tree and TPO overlap confuses people because the two regimes look similar on a council web page, but only one of them applies to any given tree at any given time.

Section 211 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 says so directly. The notice duty applies to trees in a conservation area that are not already subject to an Order.

The two regimes side by side

Both regimes protect trees, and both make it a criminal offence to carry out works without going through the right process. What they ask of you is different.

The conservation area route is best understood as a pause rather than a permission. You are telling the council what you intend to do so it can decide whether to protect the tree properly. The Order route is a true consent regime.

Which one applies when a tree is covered by both

The Order. A tree already subject to a Tree Preservation Order is outside the section 211 notice duty, so serving a notice achieves nothing and the six weeks does not start running. Works carried out six weeks after a notice on a tree that turns out to be covered by an Order are unlawful.

This matters because the two designations overlap constantly. Conservation areas were drawn around the older parts of towns, which is where the mature garden trees are, and councils have been making Orders on those trees for decades. In an established conservation area it is normal for some trees to carry an Order and others not, sometimes within the same garden.

So the sequence is always the same. Find out whether an Order covers the tree. Only if it does not do you fall back on the notice procedure.

The six week notice period in practice

A section 211 notice has to describe the tree and the works clearly enough for the council to understand what will happen to it. In practice that means the species, the position on a plan or a sketch, and the operation proposed in arboricultural terms: crown reduction with a stated percentage or finished dimensions, crown lift to a stated height, removal of named limbs, or felling.

"Tidy up the tree at the back" is not a valid notice. A vague notice leaves the council unable to assess the proposal, and the officer will usually either ask for more or make an Order to buy time.

The six weeks runs from receipt. During it the council can inspect the tree, discuss alternatives, or make a Tree Preservation Order. Our note on what a tree officer inspects on site covers what that visit looks at.

If the six weeks passes with no Order made, you may carry out the works as described in the notice, and only those works. The permission, such as it is, lasts two years from the date of the notice. Carry out something different from what you notified and you are back to square one.

Applying for consent under an order

An application under the 2012 Regulations needs the same precision, plus a reason. Councils weigh the amenity value of the tree against the justification for the works, and the justification is where applications succeed or fail.

Good reasons are specific and evidenced: a report from an arboriculturist identifying significant decay with the inspection method stated, documented subsidence damage with a structural or geotechnical opinion, demonstrable interference with a building that cannot be managed by pruning. A tree survey prepared to the current British Standard gives the officer the condition information in the format they expect.

Weak reasons are familiar to every tree officer. Leaves in the gutter. Shade on the lawn. Berries on the car. Fear of a future failure with no inspection evidence. A perceived effect on a solar panel installation.

The council has eight weeks to decide. No decision is not consent, it is simply no decision, and you then have a right of appeal against the non-determination as well as against a refusal.

Exemptions, and where they differ

Both regimes carry exemptions, and they are narrower than most people assume.

Dead trees may be removed under both, with five working days notice to the council before the works except in an emergency. The burden of showing the tree was actually dead rests on you, so photograph it in the state you found it, from more than one angle, before anything is cut.

Trees presenting an immediate risk of serious harm may be dealt with to the extent needed to remove that risk, and no further. "To the extent necessary" is the operative phrase. Felling a whole tree where removing one limb would have resolved the danger is an offence, and councils do prosecute on that basis.

Works by or on behalf of statutory undertakers, works required under an Act of Parliament, and certain fruit tree operations have their own exemptions. There are also differences in how each regime treats works needed to implement a planning permission, which is one reason to agree tree works as part of an application rather than afterwards. Our note on clearing a site before an application sets out why doing it the other way round is a poor plan.

Penalties and the duty to replace

Destroying or wilfully damaging a protected tree is a criminal offence under section 210 of the 1990 Act, and the available fine is unlimited. Lesser breaches, such as pruning beyond what was notified, are also offences with their own penalty.

Both regimes also carry a duty to plant a replacement. Where a tree protected by an Order is removed, the landowner must replace it unless the council dispenses with that duty, and an equivalent duty applies to trees in conservation areas. The replacement is enforceable by notice, and it binds successors in title, so the obligation can arrive with a house you have just bought.

Two practical consequences follow. Ask the question before you buy a property with a large tree close to the house. And never let a tree surgeon tell you a tree is exempt without seeing their reasoning in writing, because the liability sits with the landowner.

Finding out what protects a tree in your garden

Start with the council. Most planning authorities publish a constraints map showing conservation area boundaries and Tree Preservation Orders, and the tree officer will confirm the position by email, usually within a few days. Ask the question in writing and keep the answer.

Where the council's map is hard to read, the national planning data service publishes conservation area boundaries as an open dataset, which is useful for checking whether a boundary runs through your garden. Order coverage is less consistently published nationally, so the council remains the authority on it.

Then match your question to the regime. An Order means an application. A conservation area with no Order means a notice and six weeks. Neither means you can proceed, subject to any planning condition on your own property requiring trees to be retained.

If the works are part of a wider project, deal with the trees inside the planning application rather than alongside it. A tree survey and an arboricultural method statement submitted with the scheme get the tree officer's comments resolved once, instead of twice.

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.