Report of a TPO prosecution

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

All a bit tragic and wasteful considering the time and effort required to achieve a pitiful prosecution outcome....

 

https://www.examiner.co.uk/news/west-yorkshire-news/two-business-owners-fined-after-14473858

[billpierce]

Total joke fine

[Gary Prentice]

Bit surprised at the level of the fine. Kirklees has a long history of successful TPO prosecutions going back over twenty years, to my knowledge, normally with pretty steep fines.

[Alex O]

3k in fines? That’s nothing. Local firm here does it every year and the most he got finned was £900. For felling a 150yr old beech tree in a protected woodland which went the wrong way and destroyed a 200yr old dry stone wall. Justs give the rest of the cowboys a green light to start hacking everything down. I was always under the impression that for removing a tree with a TPO on it the maximum fine would be up to 20k.

[Martin du Preez]

That's ridiculous, they made the fines unlimited so this sort of thing doesn't happen when builders take the piss

[Gary Prentice]

1 hour ago, Alex O said:

3k in fines? That’s nothing. Local firm here does it every year and the most he got finned was £900. For felling a 150yr old beech tree in a protected woodland which went the wrong way and destroyed a 200yr old dry stone wall. Justs give the rest of the cowboys a green light to start hacking everything down. I was always under the impression that for removing a tree with a TPO on it the maximum fine would be up to 20k.

That's very much the position locally. Contractor caught on site knowingly felling a cedar that had been refused consent to fell. Legal department didn't pursue it. TO and Planning officer are fed up because this is continually happening. 

 

It does make you consider if it's worth doing everything properly and encouraging tree owners to go through the formal application process when, in all probability, they can do what they want with immunity. 

[Alex O]

I’ve always done everything by the book but to be honest it’s never done me any favours, might as well join the corrupt cutters. But my conscience couldn’t take it. We’ve have had no major fines here in our city to actually scare anyone or to make them think twice. I’ve only ever been approached a couple of times for a bit of weekend work and a bag of cash, buy property developers. There attitude is if you don’t want to do it we will find someone else,and unfortunately they always do get someone in by dangling that carrot. Think something has to change with the fines as it only takes a phone call or to look on the local council mapping system to see where the TPO/Conservation areas are.

[Rough Hewn]

My sister in law worked for a medium sized firm in London.
The other secretary wrote down "road" instead of "street".
Crew cut down 20 mature London planes.
20k fine per tree.
400k total fine.
Killed the firm instantly.
A simple mistake.
Where as big developers get a slap on the wrist...

[Gary Prentice]

19 minutes ago, Rough Hewn said:

My sister in law worked for a medium sized firm in London.
The other secretary wrote down "road" instead of "street".
Crew cut down 20 mature London planes.
20k fine per tree.
400k total fine.
Killed the firm instantly.
A simple mistake.
Where as big developers get a slap on the wrist...

I can't see where it is in the public interest for the LA to prosecute that!

 

[Adam M]

4 hours ago, Gary Prentice said:

That's very much the position locally. Contractor caught on site knowingly felling a cedar that had been refused consent to fell. Legal department didn't pursue it. TO and Planning officer are fed up because this is continually happening. 

 

It does make you consider if it's worth doing everything properly and encouraging tree owners to go through the formal application process when, in all probability, they can do what they want with immunity. 

I had one where they applied to fell a two out of three pines, i refused, no appeal, few months later 'they had them deadwooded' by someone who knocked on their door that morning (end of cul-de-sac, noone else got knocked). Resident 'popped out' agreed giving them cash and came back to crowns of the two refused treed sat in their garden and the third having had a saw run round it haphazardly. 

 

£4k fine (2 x £1500 destructions and 1 x £1000 wilful fromage, full costs). Job done. 

 

Suddenly its in Crown Court having 'manifestly excessive' fines reduced to 1 x £750 which we had to pay a barrister round about that to rep us at.

 

Waste of time. Serious face lost.