Protected Tree Work Across Surrey,Kent And Sussex:Paperwork Handled, Work Done Properly

A Tree Preservation Order is made by the council against a named tree, a group of trees, or a whole woodland. It requires written consent before any felling, topping, lopping, uprooting, or wilful damage or destruction, and it stays attached to the tree regardless of who owns the land. A conservation area is a wider designation covering an area of townscape or landscape, and the tree protection within it is different: any tree with a trunk diameter over 75mm at 1.5m height needs six weeks' written notice to the council before work, giving the authority the chance to consider making a TPO before you act.

In practice this means a tree in a conservation area without an individual TPO can usually still be worked on, but only after the notice period has run and the council has not objected. A tree that already carries a TPO needs full written consent regardless of whether it is also in a conservation area. Streets in Oxted, Westerham, Godstone and parts of Sevenoaks include both types of designation, sometimes on the same tree, so checking both is standard practice before any application goes in.

Councils want to see the tree clearly identified, location, species, and a photograph, along with a precise description of the work proposed, not a vague intention to 'tidy it up'. Reduction percentages, the limbs or sections affected, and the reason for the work all need to be spelled out. Where the case rests on safety, decay, disease or structural failure, that needs to be described specifically rather than asserted generally, because it is what the planning officer will weigh against the tree's amenity value to the area.

Where the reason is more practical, light loss to a room, subsidence concern, or proximity to a building, the case still needs to acknowledge the tree's contribution to the street scene and explain why the proposed work is proportionate rather than excessive. Applications that ask for the minimum necessary work, rather than the maximum convenient work, tend to fare better with planning officers who are weighing amenity loss against the applicant's reason.

Once a TPO application is validated as complete, the council has eight weeks to determine it, though many decide sooner. A conservation-area notice runs on its own six-week clock, after which work can proceed if the council has not objected or made a new TPO. Missing paperwork, an incomplete description of the tree, or an unclear map reference are the most common reasons an application stalls rather than progresses within that period.

If an application is refused, there is a right of appeal to the Planning Inspectorate, which considers the case afresh rather than simply reviewing the council's decision. Appeals take longer than the original application and are worth pursuing only where there is a genuine, well-evidenced case, which is exactly why getting the first application right matters, since a strong initial submission is less likely to need one at all.

Most councils, including Tandridge, Sevenoaks and Tunbridge Wells, allow work to dead, dying or dangerous branches or trees without full consent, but the exemption is narrower than most homeowners assume. It generally applies only to the minimum work necessary to remove the immediate hazard, and most authorities still expect five days' notice before work starts wherever practicable, so they have the option of inspecting the tree first. Relying on the exemption for a tree that is simply overgrown or inconvenient, rather than genuinely dead or dangerous, is exactly the situation that leads to prosecution.

Where a tree is a genuine emergency, a hanging limb over a driveway after a storm, or a split trunk threatening a structure, the safety of people and property comes first, and reasonable emergency action is defensible after the fact. But even then, notifying the council as soon as possible protects you, and it is standard practice on any out-of-hours call-out we attend involving a protected tree.

Larger sites, a farm, an estate, or a development plot across Reigate & Banstead, Mid Sussex or Crawley, often carry TPOs on groups of trees or woodland areas rather than individual specimens, and applications for these need to describe the group and the management intention rather than a single tree in isolation. Where a development is involved, a council may want to see how the application sits alongside any planning permission already granted, since planning conditions frequently reference retained trees separately from the TPO itself.

For estates with multiple protected trees managed over several years, it is worth keeping a simple record of past applications and decisions, because planning officers often refer back to previous correspondence when assessing a new request on the same land. We keep our own record of every application submitted on a client's behalf, which speeds up the next one considerably.