Planning - Trees & Hedgerows
Tree and Woodland Protection
Trees can make an important contribution to the appearance of the countryside and towns and for this reason the District Council is concerned to ensure that important trees are protected both from felling and from pruning that would destroy their appearance.
There are 3 main ways that trees may be protected:-
Tree Preservation Orders (TPO)
These may be placed on trees which are visually important to the area, or trees which may be under threat from future development. If you have trees on your property covered by a TPO, you must get permission to do any works to the tree, whether this is felling or pruning. If you are not sure if a tree is covered by a TPO, contact us (details at bottom of page) and ask, as it is an offence to do works to trees covered by a TPO without consent, unless they are dead, dying or dangerous.
Conservation Areas
If you are planning to fell or prune a tree in a Conservation Area you are required to give the Council 6 weeks notice in writing of your intentions. The Council may either decide to raise no objections to your proposals or, if it wishes to retain the trees or have strict control over any pruning works, a Tree Preservation Order may be made on the trees. If you have not heard anything 6 weeks after the Council receives your notification you may carry out the works.
Planning Conditions
Conditions may be put on the planning permission which require certain trees to be kept. It is also possible that conditions may be put on a planning permission requiring additional trees to be planted. This may be to replace trees lost by the development, or to screen the development on the site from the surrounding area.
Hedgerows
Before removing a hedgerow, you should seek confirmation from the Development Control Team, that prior notification is not required under the Hedgerow Regulations.
In relation to unauthorised removal of Hedgerows or Protected Trees See Enforcement
Copies of the relevant forms and notes are given below
If you have an enquiry about Trees and Hedgerows, please use our online planning enquiry form.
From April this year all planning applications submitted to this and all other Local Planning Authorities will need to be completed using the new national planning application form known as 1APP.
Local Planning Authorities may introduce 1APP ahead of the April deadline and many have already done so. The Council has agreed that the submission of applications electronically via the planning portal to the Council will take place on the new forms from the 3rd March, subject to final confirmation.
Please note that to coincide with that, it is also intended that applications may be submitted to this Council on the new 1APP forms from that date too.
If you have any queries on the new application form or the procedure to use it do please contact the Development Control Team.
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