Trees and a Garden Gym in England: Tree Preservation Orders, Conservation Areas and Cutting Roots

A garden gym often goes exactly where a tree is growing, or close enough that roots, branches or shade become a design problem. In England, a protected tree cannot be pruned, felled or root-cut just because a building is permitted development. This guide summarises the GOV.UK planning guidance on Tree Preservation Orders (TPOs) and trees in conservation areas and the Planning Portal’s explanation of consent. It applies to England only; the other nations have their own rules. It is general information, not legal advice, and it complements our guides to permitted development for an outdoor gym and digging foundations and buried services.

What a Tree Preservation Order protects

GOV.UK explains that a TPO is an order made by a local planning authority to protect trees, groups of trees or woodlands. It prohibits cutting down, topping, lopping, uprooting, wilful damage and wilful destruction without the authority’s written consent. The Planning Portal gives the same list of prohibited activities. To find out whether a tree is protected, the Planning Portal advises contacting the local planning authority, which is usually the council, or the relevant national park or Broads Authority where the tree is in one of those areas. GOV.UK adds that a confirmed order is recorded in the local land charges register.

Trees in a conservation area

Trees in a conservation area that are not covered by a TPO are dealt with under section 211 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. GOV.UK says the owner must give six weeks’ notice to the local authority before carrying out certain work, unless an exception applies, so that the authority can consider making a TPO. Contravening a TPO, or failing to give the section 211 notice, is an offence, and GOV.UK says the same penalties apply to unauthorised conservation area work as to contravening an order. The Planning Portal states that the local planning authority can prosecute when work is done without consent on a preserved tree, without the required notice on a conservation area tree, or when exemptions are misused.

Permitted development does not override a TPO

This point matters for a garden gym. GOV.UK states that the authority’s consent is also required for work on trees protected by an order that is necessary to implement permitted development rights. In other words, a garden building that needs no planning application under permitted development rights still needs TPO consent before a protected tree is cut. By contrast, GOV.UK says that consent is not required for work on trees subject to an order so far as it is necessary to implement a full planning permission, whereas consent is required for outline permission because outline permission lacks the necessary detail. A homeowner relying on permitted development therefore cannot assume the tree can go.

Roots count

GOV.UK records the Secretary of State’s view that cutting roots is also a prohibited activity requiring the authority’s consent. That is relevant to trenching for foundations, a concrete base or an electrical supply to an outbuilding, since digging near a protected tree may involve cutting roots even where no branch is touched. The sources summarised here do not set a minimum distance from a trunk, so the local planning authority is the body to ask when a site is close to a protected tree.

Applications, timing and appeals

An application for work to a TPO tree goes to the local planning authority. GOV.UK and the Planning Portal both give an eight-week period from validation, and if the authority has not decided within eight weeks the applicant can appeal to the Secretary of State, as they can if consent is refused or made conditional. The Planning Portal adds that consent is valid for two years once granted or notice given, and that conservation area notices require six weeks before work begins. For planning a build, these periods mean that tree work should be settled before contractors are booked. Our guide to hiring a builder or fitter covers the wider project.

Exceptions

The Planning Portal says consent is not required where a tree is dead or dangerous, but the owner must be able to show that the exemption applies and should still notify the authority. GOV.UK lists dead tree removal with five days’ notice, urgent work to address immediate safety risks, compliance with statutory obligations and certain statutory undertakers as exceptions. Misusing an exemption is itself a ground for prosecution.

Frequently asked questions

Can a tree be cut for a garden gym built under permitted development? Not without TPO consent if the tree is protected, according to GOV.UK.

How can protection be checked? By asking the local planning authority, says the Planning Portal.

How long does consent take? Applications have an eight-week determination period, and conservation area notices require six weeks.

The bottom line

In England, protected trees and trees in conservation areas need consent or notice before pruning, felling or root cutting, and permitted development rights for a garden gym do not change that. Checking with the local planning authority before designing the site avoids offences, delays and redesign.

Sources

• GOV.UK, “Tree Preservation Orders and trees in conservation areas”
• Planning Portal, “Works to Trees: consent under Tree Preservation Orders”