Felling License question

[treebloke]

Say you had a large site which covered around 10 hectares and within that area you have maybe 5 seperate woodlands.

 

You are allowed to take 5 cubic mtr in a quarter, is that from every wood or the site overall, the exemptions do not seem to make this point clear.

Edited February 8, 2014 by treebloke

[Daniël Bos]

How are the woodlands separate? Are they owned by different people?

[treebloke]

How are the woodlands separate? Are they owned by different people?

 

They are seperated by distance and owned by the same person. I guess it would be the same question if you owned a wood in Wolverhampton and one in Shrewsbury, another in Oswestery and another in Manchester (I know there are no woods in Manchester its just an example).

[Charlieh]

my understanding is its per holding.

 

If the woods were all on the same farm/estate then its 5cu per quarter, if the woods are all on separate holdings eg separate estates but under the same overall ownership and they are run as separate then you can utilise the 5cu on each separate holding, if that makes sense

[Stubby]

The license applies to " the site " not the guy felling so it must stipulate the boundary of the site ?

[TGB]

The license applies to " the site " not the guy felling so it must stipulate the boundary of the site ?

As I understood it too.

 

It would also be helpful, if individual woods/forests had documented & differing names. These then would have marked boundaries. But if a woodland has but one name and overall boundary. Then having pockets of standing timber, where say clear-cut has taken place in the past between said pockets. Well then it's down to a felling licence for more felling.

[treebloke]

Just to clarify a little more, its urban forestry not rural. They are individual plantings owned by the local authority but within the same town.

[Xaltu]

My understanding then is that the allowance would be over all sites owned by the local authority rather than per individual site unless there as been a recent change in policy by the Forestry Commission.

[daltontrees]

An interesting question! The Act says tha the exemption (i.e. under 5 cube a quarter) applies to "trees on land in [a person's] occupation or occupied by a tenant of [a person]"

 

It would seem that the exemption applies to the person, not to the land. But by extension, the land is the land in the control of the person.

 

The Forestry Commission website and leaflets do not seem to elaborate on this, referring only to 'your property' which merely underlines the emphasis on ownership/control rather than defined estates or holdings.

 

All a bit hopeless if you own a series of scattered plantations.

[treebloke]

My understanding then is that the allowance would be over all sites owned by the local authority rather than per individual site unless there as been a recent change in policy by the Forestry Commission.

 

If this is to be the case then I would suggest most local authorities are working withing a felling licence on a daily basis. One days work alone could put you over the criterea?.

 

Local authorities are not exempt simply because they are local authorities and many trees are taken down that do not fall within the exemption:confused1:.

 

Felling licences exemptions (England)