Most garden trees can be pruned or felled without asking anyone. But a protected tree, a conservation area, a planning condition or a nesting bird can all change that. Here's how to check before any work starts.
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In England you don't usually need permission to prune or fell a tree on your own land. You do need it if the tree has a Tree Preservation Order (consent from the council), if it's in a conservation area (six weeks' notice to the council), if a planning condition protects it, or if you would fell more timber than a felling licence allows. Whatever the tree, you must not disturb nesting birds or bat roosts. We check all of this on our free visit and make any application for you.
Ask your council, or search its online TPO map. A TPO can cover a single tree, a group, an area or a woodland, and applies to pruning as well as felling.
Check the council's conservation area maps. Trees with a stem 7.5 cm or more across, measured 1.5 m above the ground, are covered.
If your house is fairly new or has been extended, check the planning permission for conditions that protect trees or hedges.
Gardens are exempt. Outside gardens, felling more than 5 cubic metres of timber in a calendar quarter usually needs a Forestry Commission licence.
Check every tree and hedge for nesting birds, especially from March to August, and for signs of bats in older trees.
Make sure the tree is yours. Trees on the boundary may be jointly owned.
A council can protect a tree, a group of trees or a woodland with a TPO. You need the council's consent before cutting down, topping, lopping, uprooting or damaging it, including cutting roots. Applications usually take up to eight weeks. See our TPO applications service.
Trees in a conservation area with a stem of 7.5 cm or more across at 1.5 m are protected. You must give the council six weeks' written notice of the work, so it can decide whether to protect the tree with a TPO.
There are exemptions for trees that are dead or dangerous, but they are narrow. In most cases you must give the council notice first, and you should keep photos and an arborist's report. Get advice before relying on them.
A planning permission can require trees to be kept and protected during and after building work. Breaking a condition can lead to enforcement by the council.
Outside gardens, orchards, churchyards and public open spaces, felling more than 5 cubic metres of timber in a calendar quarter usually needs a Forestry Commission licence. See our woodland management page.
It's an offence to damage an active bird's nest or a bat roost, wherever the tree is. Work is planned around them, and stopped if one is found.
On our free visit we check for TPOs, conservation areas and wildlife before we quote, and tell you exactly what permission the work needs.
If consent or notice is needed, we prepare the application with the right description of the work, photos and a plan, send it to the council and keep you updated. We don't start work until the permission is in place.
Work on a protected tree without consent can lead to a large fine, and the fine can fall on the tree owner as well as the contractor, so it's always worth checking first.
Anything not covered here? Ask us and we'll give you a straight answer.
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