Bank of a canalside with wild flowers, trees and people sitting at a bench

Tree Preservation Orders

Some trees in the OPDC area are protected, meaning work cannot be done to them without our permission. This includes trees: 

  • with a Tree Preservation Order 
  • in a conservation area (standard legal threshold are trees with a diameter of 7.5cm or more at a point 1.5m above the ground)

Tree Preservation Orders give legal protection to trees or woodland. An order prevents trees being cut down, uprooted, topped, lopped, wilfully damaged or destroyed, including cutting roots, without our permission.

A photo of Wormwood Scrubs parkland

Trees in Conservation Areas

Trees in conservation areas are also protected by law. These provisions require people to notify the local planning authority, using a section 211 notice, 6 weeks before carrying out certain work on such trees, unless an exception applies.

Check if a tree is protected

You can find out if a tree is protected by:

If you are unsure if a tree is protected by an order, or whether it is in a conservation area, please contact us.

Responsibilities for tree owners

If you own trees with a TPO, you are responsible for them, their condition and any damage they may cause.

You must apply for permission before carrying out work, unless the tree in question is dead or dangerous, in which case you would need to give us five working days notice under the dead and dangerous exemption.

If work is done to a protected tree without our permission and the tree is damaged or destroyed, the owner or person carrying out the work can be prosecuted and fined up to £20,000 in a magistrates’ court. 

Child jumping along a path which runs alongside a canal

Apply to work on a tree

If you wish to carry out works to a protected tree, you must first gain consent. To make a formal application, you must submit a ‘works to trees’ application typically via the Planning Portal. Your application is dealt with in a similar way to a planning application. 

If consent is granted, conditions are often attached, and the work must be carried out in accordance with the conditions of consent. You must not carry out the work before you receive the decision.

Go to the Planning Portal

Report work done to a protected tree without permission 

If you suspect that work is being done on a tree protected by a Tree Preservation Order without permission, you should report this to us immediately by contacting OPDC's Planning Enforcement Team.

Requesting a new Tree Preservation Order

You can contact us to request a new TPO. We will consider serving a TPO where there is a specific threat to the appearance or existence of trees that provide significant public visual amenity or where their removal would be detrimental to the local and wider landscape, so it is important that the request is clearly justified. 

Including photographs of the tree, taken from a public place, will help us to decide whether the creation of a TPO is warranted. 

How to request a Tree Preservation Order 

When you request a Tree Preservation Order, you must clearly tell us which trees you want to protect and state the reasons why it’s important to protect them. 

We’ll consider requests for Tree Preservation Orders against the following main criteria: 

  • the extent to which the tree(s) can be seen by the general public.
  • the tree’s importance in terms of its size, form and how rare it is.
  • the significance of the tree(s) where it is sited and the wider impact on the environment.
  • a clear threat of removal or pruning which may impact upon the amenity.

To request a Tree Preservation Order, contact OPDC's Planning Policy team.

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