Trees and hedges guidance

Trees can be protected by Tree Preservation Orders or because they are in a Conservation Area. You can check with us to see if a tree is protected. Planning consent is required to carry out work on them.

Trees in gardens, particularly front gardens or where they are part of pre-development hedgerows can also be legally protected by restrictive covenants in property deeds. So you may need to check a property's deeds and the authority who had the covenant inserted, before carrying out work on the tree.

The council, when granting planning permission, may sometimes ask that existing trees are kept as a condition of the planning permission, or by a legal agreement, even if they are not protected by a TPO or in a conservation area.

If a tree is located in the grounds of a property that was built or extended within the past few years it may be protected by a planning condition. There may be details of any specific trees with conditions in the deeds to the property or found in the public access records in the planning application for your property.

To find out if your tree is protected, visit trees and hedges.