Who consents works to a street tree

Works to street trees consent does not come from the planning department. A tree growing in adopted highway land belongs to the highway authority, which decides whether it is pruned, felled or replaced, and the planning authority has no say unless a Tree Preservation Order or a conservation area notice applies. In a two-tier area that means the county council rather than the district, and in London it means the borough or, on the red routes, Transport for London.

Knowing which body to write to saves weeks. A letter to the district council about a tree it does not own gets forwarded, or does not.

Who owns a tree in the street

Ownership follows the land. The highway authority owns the surface of a publicly maintainable highway and the trees growing in it, including those in verges, grass strips and tree pits within the footway.

The boundary is not always where the hedge or the kerb is. Many footways include a strip of verge whose adopted extent sits behind the trees, and some trees that look like street trees stand in private front gardens or on land retained by a developer. Check the highway authority's definitive record, usually called the list of streets or the highway extent map, before assuming.

Trees on unadopted roads, in private estates and on land still held by a management company are private trees. The rules for them are the planning rules, with no highway dimension at all.

The authority's powers and duties

Section 96 of the Highways Act 1980 gives a highway authority the power to plant trees and shrubs in a highway maintainable at public expense, and to alter, maintain and remove them. That power is discretionary. There is no statutory duty to retain a particular tree, and no right for a resident to require one to be kept or removed.

The authority does carry duties that pull in both directions. As owner it owes a duty of care in respect of a tree that is dangerous. As highway authority it must keep the highway safe and passable, which is the justification usually given for crown lifting over footways and carriageways.

Section 142 of the same Act deals with the opposite case: a licence allowing an owner or occupier of adjoining land to plant and retain trees in the highway, with the maintenance obligation sitting with the licensee. Community tree planting schemes often run on these licences, and the terms repay a careful read before volunteering.

The duty to consult before felling

The Environment Act 2021 introduced a duty on local highway authorities in England to consult the public before felling a street tree. Regulations set out the detail, including the exceptions, which cover small trees and trees that are dead, dying or present an immediate risk, along with works required under other statutory powers.

What the duty gives is notice and a chance to comment. It does not give a veto. An authority that consults, considers the responses and still decides to fell has complied.

Use it properly where it applies. A response that addresses the stated reason for felling, with photographs, is more useful than a petition. If the reason is subsidence damage or footway heave, ask for the evidence, including the arboricultural assessment and whether root pruning or footway reconstruction around the roots was considered.

Where a Tree Preservation Order also applies

A Tree Preservation Order made by the planning authority can cover a tree standing in the highway, and in that case two regimes overlap.

Works to a protected tree normally need the planning authority's consent under the order, applied for on the standard form with a five-day exemption notice route for dead or dangerous trees. But exemptions in the Tree Preservation Regulations and in the 1990 Act displace that requirement in defined circumstances, including works carried out in compliance with a statutory obligation. The practical effect is that highway authority works to a protected highway tree may not need a separate consent.

Check with both bodies and get the position in writing, because the overlap generates genuine confusion. Where development is also involved, conditions and order consents can pull in different directions, as our note on planning condition and TPO consent conflict explains.

Conservation areas and the six week notice

Section 211 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 requires six weeks' written notice to the planning authority before works to a tree in a conservation area that is not already protected by an order, where the trunk exceeds 75 millimetres in diameter measured at 1.5 metres above ground.

During those six weeks the authority can make a Tree Preservation Order. If it does nothing, the works may proceed, and the permission lasts two years.

The notice duty applies to anyone carrying out the works, which in principle includes a highway authority, subject to the same statutory exemptions. For residents this is the most useful lever in a conservation area: the notice is a public document and it gives six weeks' warning.

Asking for works or reporting a defect

Most authorities run an online reporting route, and the quality of the report determines what happens.

• Give the location precisely, with the nearest property number and a photograph showing the tree in context.
• Describe the defect rather than the inconvenience: deadwood over the footway, a split in a major limb, fungal brackets at the base, a lifted footway slab with a measurement.
• Say what you are asking for, and accept that leaf fall, shade, sap, birds and fruit are not usually treated as defects.
• Keep the reference number, and follow up in writing rather than by phone.

Pruning cycles on most authorities run to several years, and a request outside the cycle needs a safety reason to jump it.

Trees removed to form a driveway

This is where residents most often encounter the regime. An application for a vehicle crossing under section 184 of the Highways Act 1980 that requires a street tree to be removed is usually refused, or granted only with conditions.

Where an authority does agree, expect three things. A charge for the removal and for the crossing works. A requirement for replacement planting, sometimes at a ratio greater than one for one, in an agreed location. And a payment reflecting the amenity value of the tree lost, often calculated using a published valuation method such as the capital asset value approach used by many tree officers.

Those sums are set by the authority's own policy and vary widely, so ask for the policy document and the calculation rather than accepting a figure.

Replacement planting and new streets

Replacement is where the long-term outcome is decided, and the specification matters more than the number of trees.

A replacement in a 1 metre square pit with compacted subsoil beneath the footway will not reach maturity. Rooting volume, structural soil or a cellular system, irrigation in the establishment period and protection from vehicle overrun all determine whether the tree survives 20 years. Where development is involved, those details belong in a tree survey and the associated method statement, and level changes near existing roots need their own treatment, as set out in retaining walls and level changes in a root protection area.

New development brings its own expectations for street trees, which are shaped at allocation stage as much as at application stage, a point covered in trees on allocated sites at plan stage.

If you are responding to a consultation or a planning application that affects street trees, PlanScope shows which arboricultural and landscape documents a scheme of that kind would normally be expected to provide.

This is general guidance, not legal advice: check the position with your local planning authority, the highway authority or a qualified professional before relying on it.