Woodland and area Tree Preservation Orders compared

A woodland TPO and an area TPO protect different things, and the difference is time. A woodland designation protects every tree within the mapped area, including trees that seed or are planted after the Order was made. An area designation protects only the trees of the specified kinds that were standing within the area on the day the Order came into force. For a farm or estate owner clearing regenerated scrub from a corner of a field, that distinction decides whether the work needs consent at all.

Both classifications sit in Orders made under the Town and Country Planning (Tree Preservation) (England) Regulations 2012, and older Orders made under earlier regulations remain in force with their original classifications.

The four ways an Order classifies trees

The model Order schedules trees under four headings, and the letter in front of the reference number tells you which applies.

• Individual trees, referenced with a T. Each one is identified on the plan and in the schedule by species and position.
• Groups, referenced with a G. The designation recognises collective amenity value, and each tree within the group is protected individually.
• Woodlands, referenced with a W. The whole mapped area is protected as a woodland, not as a list of trees.
• Areas, referenced with an A. The trees of the kinds specified that were within the mapped area at the date of the Order are protected.

The first thing to do with any Order is to read the schedule rather than the plan. A plan showing a green wash over the corner of a paddock could be a woodland designation, an area designation or a group, and the consequences differ substantially.

What an area designation protects

An area designation is a snapshot. It captures the trees of the specified kinds growing within the mapped area on the day the Order took effect, and nothing else.

Three consequences follow.

The specification of kinds matters. Where an Order protects "all oak and ash trees" within an area, a sycamore of the same age standing beside them was never protected.

The date matters more. A tree that established itself after the Order came into force is outside the designation, however large it has since become. An Order made in 1974 on a field corner that has since scrubbed over protects only what was there in 1974.

And the evidential burden sits with the owner. The authority is not required to prove which trees predate the Order. If you intend to rely on a tree being later growth, assemble the evidence first: the Order plan and schedule, historic Ordnance Survey mapping, dated aerial imagery, and an arboricultural assessment of age from stem diameter and growth characteristics. An Arboricultural Impact Assessment prepared to BS 5837:2012 will give the measurements in a form the authority recognises.

Be cautious about the conclusion, though. Getting it wrong means felling a protected tree, which is a criminal offence, and the authority can also require replacement under section 206 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.

What a woodland designation protects

A woodland designation treats the area as a unit. Every tree within the boundary is protected, whatever its species, size or age, and trees that arrive later come into protection automatically.

That is a deliberate feature rather than an oversight. A woodland is a living system that regenerates, and an Order that protected only the standing crop would lapse into irrelevance over a rotation.

The practical consequence is that boundary accuracy is everything. Where the mapped line follows a field edge that has since moved, or where a hedge has grown out into the field, the question becomes whether a particular stem is inside or outside. Resolve that with the authority in writing before any machine arrives, because the alternative is an argument conducted after the felling.

Self-seeded growth and trees that arrived later

This is where rural owners most often come unstuck, in both directions.

Under an area designation, self-seeded ash, sycamore and birch that established after the Order date are unprotected, and clearance is a management decision rather than a consent application. Under a woodland designation the same regeneration is protected, and clearing it needs consent or an exemption.

Replacement planting behaves the same way. A tree planted to replace one lost from an area designation is not drawn into the Order. A tree planted within a woodland designation is.

Hedgerows are a separate regime again, governed by their own regulations rather than by an Order, and the distinction matters where a hedge has grown into a line of trees. The rules on hedgerow gapping up, translocation and replacement apply to the hedge, while individual trees within it may also carry an Order.

Thinning, small trees and good forestry

The model Order contains an exemption for small trees in a woodland, and it is the provision that makes woodland management workable.

Cutting down a tree in a woodland is exempt where its diameter does not exceed 8 centimetres, measured 1.5 metres above the ground. Where the work is thinning carried out to improve the growth of other trees, the threshold rises to 10 centimetres. Those figures do the work of routine thinning and respacing without an application.

Beyond those diameters, consent is needed, and the application should be framed as forestry rather than as tree removal. Authorities grant consent for thinning in accordance with good forestry practice far more readily than for felling, and the material that persuades is a management plan: the stand description, the objective, the intervention, the residual stocking density and the timing.

Note the parallel exemption for trees in conservation areas that are not covered by an Order. Those are subject to a six week notice requirement under section 211, with an exemption for trees below 75 millimetres in diameter at 1.5 metres, rising to 100 millimetres where the work is thinning to improve the growth of other trees. Different numbers, similar logic, and they are easy to confuse.

Felling licences alongside an Order

Woodland work frequently engages the Forestry Act 1967 as well as the Order, and the two regimes are designed to dovetail.

A felling licence is required to fell growing trees above specified thresholds. The exemptions cover small diameters, with trees up to 8 centimetres, thinnings up to 10 centimetres and coppice or underwood up to 15 centimetres outside the requirement, together with a quarterly volume allowance of 5 cubic metres, of which no more than 2 cubic metres may be sold.

Where a felling licence is granted, the model Order exempts the work from the need for separate consent, and the Forestry Commission consults the local planning authority before granting it. So for a bona fide forestry operation the licence is the primary route and the Order is dealt with inside it.

Two traps. Restocking conditions attached to a licence create a replanting obligation that runs with the land, and those replanted trees will be protected if the Order is a woodland designation. And the volume allowance is per calendar quarter, not per year, so a single larger operation cannot be split across a weekend to fit within it.

Why new Orders avoid area designations

National guidance discourages area classifications other than as a temporary measure, for instance to hold a position in an emergency while a proper survey is carried out, and encourages authorities to review existing Orders and replace area designations with individual or group classifications.

The reasons are practical. An area designation becomes harder to administer every year as the snapshot recedes. It gives owners no reliable way to know what is protected without historic research. And it provides no protection at all to the regeneration that will form the next generation of canopy.

For an owner, that creates an opportunity and a risk. Where an old area designation covers land you manage, asking the authority to review it can produce a clearer position for both sides. Where you are applying for development, expect the authority to take the chance to re-classify, and expect a tree survey to be the trigger. The same dynamic appears when a planning condition and TPO consent conflict, and the resolution is usually the same: get the classification and the drawings agreed in writing first.

Councils expect a suitably qualified author for arboricultural work, and professional review is strongly advised before anything is submitted. Enter your postcode on PlanScope to see which reports a site with protected trees is likely to need.

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.