Tree Preservation Orders (TPOs): works, consent and appeals

 

A Tree Preservation Order (TPO) is made by a local planning authority to protect trees, groups of trees or woodlands in the interests of amenity. Unless an exception applies, it prohibits cutting down, topping, lopping, uprooting, wilful damage or wilful destruction without the authority’s written consent.

A TPO does not transfer ownership of a tree to the council and it does not make the council responsible for maintaining it. The owner remains responsible for the tree, including reasonable safety management.

The main law is Part VIII of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and the Town and Country Planning (Tree Preservation) (England) Regulations 2012.

 

What can a TPO protect?

 

A TPO can identify trees in four familiar ways:

• individual trees
• groups of trees
• areas – protecting trees which existed within a defined area when the order was made
• woodlands – protecting the woodland as a whole, including later regeneration and new trees within it

A woodland category TPO is not the same thing as ancient woodland. Ancient woodland, ancient trees and veteran trees can engage separate planning-policy protection as irreplaceable habitat whether or not a TPO also applies.

There is no species list of automatically protected trees. A TPO can protect trees of any size or species where the authority considers it expedient in the interests of amenity. Shrubs are not normally capable of being protected merely as shrubs, although trees forming part of a hedge can be covered.

 

When can a council make a TPO?

 

The statutory test is whether it appears to the local planning authority to be expedient in the interests of amenity to make provision for the preservation of trees or woodlands.

Government guidance advises authorities to consider matters including public visibility, the individual or collective impact of the trees, their size and form, future potential, rarity, historic or cultural value, relationship with the landscape and contribution to a conservation area. Nature conservation and climate considerations can also be relevant, although they do not alone establish the amenity case.

An order can be made proactively or following a threat such as a proposed development, a conservation-area section 211 notice or information that significant trees may be removed.

 

A new TPO can take effect immediately

 

When a new TPO is made it can have provisional effect immediately. The authority must then follow the statutory notification procedure and consider objections and representations.

The provisional protection lasts for up to six months unless the order is confirmed earlier. If the authority wants the protection to continue, it must confirm the order within the relevant period. Confirmation can be with or without modifications permitted by the Regulations.

This is why attempting to fell a tree merely because an order has not yet completed its objection process can be risky: the provisional order may already be legally effective.

 

Applying for work to a TPO tree

 

If no exception applies, an application for consent is made to the local planning authority. The proposal should identify the tree and specify the work clearly. Where the reason for work depends on the condition or safety of the tree, suitable arboricultural evidence should be supplied.

The authority normally has eight weeks to determine an application. It can grant consent, grant subject to conditions or refuse. Conditions can deal with matters such as the standard of work and replacement planting.

Consent should not be described simply as permission to “do whatever pruning is necessary”. The approved specification matters, and materially exceeding it can result in enforcement or prosecution.

 

Dead trees and immediate risk of serious harm

 

The 2012 Regulations changed an older rule which is still repeated online. A tree being dying is no longer, by itself, a general exemption.

There are exceptions for a dead tree and for work urgently necessary to remove an immediate risk of serious harm. Where advance notice is practicable, the local planning authority should receive at least five working days’ written notice. If the situation is genuinely so urgent that advance notice cannot be given, written notice should be supplied as soon as practicable after the work becomes necessary.

Only the work justified by the exception is exempt. If pruning would adequately remove the immediate risk, that does not automatically justify felling the whole tree. Keep photographs and, where possible, a competent arboriculturist’s report.

 

Does planning permission override a TPO?

 

There is an important but limited exception. Separate TPO consent is not required for work to a protected tree so far as that work is necessary to implement a full planning permission.

That does not mean every TPO on a development site disappears when planning permission is granted. Trees unaffected by the approved scheme remain protected, and work beyond what is necessary to implement the permission remains subject to the order.

The exception also does not generally apply merely because there is outline permission, or because development is being carried out under permitted development rights. In those situations TPO consent may still be required.

For a planning application involving important trees, the safest approach is to resolve the tree works expressly in the plans and arboricultural documents considered with the application.

 

Appealing a TPO application decision

 

If an application for TPO consent is refused or granted subject to conditions, the applicant can appeal to the Secretary of State. The normal deadline is just 28 days from receipt of the authority’s decision, substantially shorter than most planning appeals.

See our dedicated guide to a Tree Preservation Order appeal.

There are also different appeal provisions for matters such as tree replacement notices. Do not assume the 28-day TPO application deadline covers every tree-related appeal.

 

What happens if a protected tree is damaged or destroyed?

 

Unauthorised cutting down, uprooting or destruction of a TPO tree, or damage carried out in a manner likely to destroy it, is a criminal offence and can attract an unlimited fine. Other unauthorised works are also offences.

There can also be a statutory duty to plant a replacement tree, with the replacement normally becoming subject to the original order. Planning Geek’s guide to a TPO offence and replacement-tree enforcement covers the enforcement consequences in more detail.

 

TPOs are different from conservation-area tree notices

 

If a tree in a conservation area is not subject to a TPO, the normal route is a six-week section 211 notice rather than an application for TPO consent. The purpose is to give the authority an opportunity to make a TPO if protection is justified.

If the authority makes a TPO during that period, the TPO procedure takes over. If it does not, the notified works can normally proceed after the six-week period.

See our broader guide to trees and planning controls.

 

Relevant legislation and guidance

 

• Town and Country Planning Act 1990, Part VIII
• Town and Country Planning (Tree Preservation) (England) Regulations 2012
• Government guidance: Tree Preservation Orders and trees in conservation areas

 

Conservation, Heritage & Protected Sites

 

Tree Preservation Orders Page Updated: 20th August 2026