Tree Preservation Order (TPO)
Council consent needed before cutting or felling
A Tree Preservation Order protects specified trees from being cut down, topped, lopped, uprooted or wilfully damaged. The local planning authority makes the order, after judging that the trees matter to the look of the area. An order can cover a single tree, a group, a defined area or a whole woodland. All four UK nations use tree preservation orders, each under its own rules.
What This Means
This report does not map tree preservation orders, so it cannot tell you whether one covers this plot. The woodland flag it shows is coverage across the surrounding map cell, not a survey of this garden. An order changes nothing indoors, and nothing about the garden except the trees it names. It does not stop tree work; it stops tree work done without the council's written consent. Cutting roots counts, so a patio, a drive or a drain near a protected tree needs consent too. This does not normally affect mortgage approval, buildings insurance or resale.
Practical Advice
- Ask your conveyancer to obtain the LLC1 local land charges search, which lists any tree preservation order registered against this property.
- Ask the council's tree officer which trees an order covers here, and whether it names them individually or by area.
- Ask the seller for the council's written consent for any tree felled or cut back at this property.
- Ask your architect to check the root protection areas of nearby protected trees before drawing an extension or a new drive.
Key Points
- A dead protected tree can be felled after five working days' written notice to the council; a living one in the same garden needs a consent decision first.
- Fell a protected tree without consent and the authority can serve a replacement notice, requiring a new tree of appropriate size and species in the same spot.
- A consent application for work to a protected tree appears on the council's planning register tagged 'Tree works', alongside extensions and change-of-use applications.
Additional Information
An order can be made at any time, including in response to a felling notice, so nothing found today rules one out later. In Scotland an order may also protect a tree of historic or cultural interest, not only one that matters to the look of a place. The linked guidance covers England.