Do I need permission to cut down or prune a tree in my garden?

The tree in your garden may be legally protected without anything on it saying so. Protection is recorded by the council, not marked on the tree, and the offence does not require you to have known. One call to the council's tree officer settles it, and it is the cheapest call in this whole cluster.

Safety

Step by step

1. Ring or email the council's tree officer with the address.Ask two questions: is this tree covered by a tree preservation order, and is the property in a conservation area? Ask for the answer in writing. Many councils also publish a tree preservation order map online.
2. If there is a preservation order, apply for consent.You apply to the council for permission to carry out specified work. Consent is often granted for sensible arboricultural work and refused for removal without justification. Do nothing to the tree until consent is granted.
3. If the tree is in a conservation area, give the required notice.Most trees above a certain size in a conservation area require written notice to the council a set period before work starts, during which the council may make a preservation order. Take the current period and size threshold from your council.
4. Check for a planning condition protecting the tree.Trees planted or retained as a condition of a planning permission are protected by that condition, separately from any preservation order. Search the property's planning history.
5. Check whether a felling licence is needed.Felling volumes above a threshold, generally outside gardens, require a licence from the relevant forestry authority. Garden trees are usually outside this, but larger plots and woodland are not.
6. Check the tree is actually yours.A tree on the boundary or on a neighbour's land is theirs. You may generally cut back growth overhanging your boundary, back to the boundary line only, and the cuttings remain the owner's property — but protection rules still apply to that cutting.
7. Get an arboricultural report if the tree is causing a problem.Where a tree is implicated in subsidence or structural damage, a report from a qualified arborist and often an engineer is what supports an application. Removing it first and explaining afterwards is not a defence.
8. Use an insured, qualified arborist for the work itself.Check qualifications, public liability insurance and how the waste is being removed. Tree work is one of the most dangerous domestic jobs there is.

Tips

• Emergency work to a tree that is dead or presents an immediate danger has a narrower route, but the exemption is tightly defined and the burden of proving it falls on you. Photograph everything and tell the council as soon as you can.
• "Nobody will notice" is a poor plan with trees, because neighbours and tree officers do notice, and a stump is evidence that lasts for years.
• Get quotes from more than one arborist. Prices for the same tree vary widely, and access is what drives the difference.

Common mistakes

• Pruning first and asking afterwards — The offence is committed by the work, not by the intention. Retrospective consent is not a thing, and the council can also require replacement planting.
• Assuming a garden tree cannot be protected — Preservation orders are commonly made on garden trees precisely because they are visible and at risk. Protection is recorded at the council, not indicated on the tree.

Questions people ask