help sorting out some tpo issues

[tempus fugit]

hi i am looking for some advice on how a tpo is structured on the site were i work

i believed i had a basic understanding of how it was structured but now have some new management come in who have some very different ideas of how this works and have confused the issue

the site i work at is built on the grounds of another older site and all existing trees were tpo,d (around 1995-7)before demolition of the structures present and  a lot of new buildings of multiple types built leaving the tpod trees intact, the tpos are not individual but just all the exiting trees by a designated area based around roughly around the areas with the trees to be tpod

the original larger site was broken up into various areas for different purposes and the part i work on contains about half the tpo trees 

so...does the tpo cover:

self sown trees that are less than 20years old?

landscape planting of young/semi mature trees?

pre existing trees that would have been very small around the tpo issue date outside of the tpod area but within the new boundry?

how does tree death or failure effect a tpo?

 

appreciate any help

[Jon Heuch]

54 minutes ago, tempus fugit said:

self sown trees that are less than 20years old?

landscape planting of young/semi mature trees?

pre existing trees that would have been very small around the tpo issue date outside of the tpod area but within the new boundry?

how does tree death or failure effect a tpo?

I hope you have the TPO plan with associated schedule? I hope you are clear that there is no other TPO lurking in the background that you are not aware of? If the schedule of the TPO lists no individual trees T1 etc, no groups G1 etc, no woodlands W1 etc then I assume you are left with one or more areas A1 etc. Each should have a description of what is covered within each group.

 

Trees that are younger than the date the order are served are not covered by the area designation; nor are trees planted since then. I am not sure what you mean by "outside of the TPOd area but within the new boundary". If they are outside of the areas shown on the TPO plan they are not protected. What is the relevance of the "boundary"?

 

Once a tree is dead its removal becomes an exception to the TPO - it can be removed without seeking permission from the council. However, you need to read s206 of the Town & Country Planning Act 1990 - (search for "What are the considerations relating to the duty to replace trees protected by a Tree Preservation Order outside woodland?" on gov.uk)  & you will see that there may be a duty to replant. The difficulty for the council is that if they have no record of the tree being there in the first place (because it is an area order) they may find it difficult to enforce the lack of replanting.

[tempus fugit]

i have the tpo plan and schedule listing covered species including "thorn" trees which is i have to assume is buckthorn or hawthorn?(it uses common names not latin)but little in detail outside of that

unfortunately i dont have the document to hand but will grab it on tuesday and check it again for any details, asking for an updated tpo just got us a nicer folder bound version of the older documents

 

the boundry of the new site is part in/part out of the old tpod area and has included a number of pre existing trees so just making sure

 

my understanding of the tpo orders were that all the tpo trees were all the trees present when the tpo was issued  within the the tpo area,any work or issues were to be referred back to a tpo officer for permission/advice and dead trees should be replaced with the same species

i have had of late a h&s manager get involved in an argument that i started with some contractors about a trenching job that would have hacked right through the rootplate of a tpo lime(tillia) and violate a tpo as well as structurally weakening a sizable tree,and the manager in question ran with it so that now he assumes ALL "trees" are covered including trees that i personally planted and it certainly placed the seeds of doubt and i want to be sure i am not at fault here

 

so replanting is not legally enforced? we have lost 6 total over the last few years none have been replanted officially,i know my employer really dosent like planting trees for some reason or anything that isnt grass tbh

 

[Jon Heuch]

1 hour ago, tempus fugit said:

so replanting is not legally enforced? we have lost 6 total over the last few years none have been replanted officially,i know my employer really dosent like planting trees for some reason or anything that isnt grass tbh

 

Replanting can be enforced, but the tree officer has to be switched on; what evidence do they have of a protected tree? If there is a large stump, clearly there is evidence of a protected tree. The council can serve a replanting notice & they could prosecute too.....but the area order does not help as it can be vague.

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

It sounds like you might be dealing with an area TPO relating to an earlier development application and trying to apply historic restrictions in a changed land use / boundary scenario?

 

Just guessing that’s what it sounds like. 
 

Maybe consider seeking a fresh look at the site with current TO to see if it would be possible to get the historic ATPO revised to better reflect current tree status in an updated series of individual tree TPOs. 
 

That’d be the Rolls Royce solution rather than trying to second guess what’s gone before. Whether you’d get any joy from LA in achieving this is a whole nuther story.....
 

 

[tempus fugit]

that would be the ideal solution and i did ask about updating it some years ago but got nowhere with my management they just were not interested.

i looked through the documents i had the whole lot is quite a messy collection of documents, i was handed an example tpo when i did a tree survey course a few years ago and it seemed a lot more refined than what i have

are tpos commissioned as part of planning permission in a case like this?