tpo issues

[Johny Walker]

need a bit of help regarding a woodland tpo on some land i own,the trees in qyuestion are lane side & have over thr yrs sucumm to compaction with trucks/vans etc running past them .

 

so got an independant tree report done along with planning to remove the worst of them ,they varified the app friday 11,th of july !!!!! 19 weeks later wich is today he says he cant grant planning ??

as he cant work out wich trees need taking out yes there is a survay,

some are stone dead,

he has canncelled site meeting on sevral occaisions @ very sort notice

 

am i with in my rights to procced & remove the trees in the app,??

 

i even offered to plant what he wanted ,

 

johny

[Gary Prentice]

need a bit of help regarding a woodland tpo on some land i own,the trees in qyuestion are lane side & have over thr yrs sucumm to compaction with trucks/vans etc running past them .

 

so got an independant tree report done along with planning to remove the worst of them ,they varified the app friday 11,th of july !!!!! 19 weeks later wich is today he says he cant grant planning ??

as he cant work out wich trees need taking out yes there is a survay,

some are stone dead,

he has canncelled site meeting on sevral occaisions @ very sort notice

 

am i with in my rights to procced & remove the trees in the app,??

 

i even offered to plant what he wanted ,

 

johny

 

You can't carry on if you haven't got consent. Two months after the application you could have appealed on the grounds of non-determination (deemed as a refusal).

 

Initially submit a five day notice to remove the dead trees. Mark them on site with spray paint or tree tags i.e clearly identify them. The council can look at them or not, their choice but in five working days you can remove the dead ones.

 

If you appeal now though, you may lose if the council can uphold their statement on identification. Surveys vary on the accuracy of the mapping and if the PINs inspector has difficulty identifying what is what you're still going to lose.

 

Make sure you well document what you remove under a 5 day notice - you may have to prove the work was necessary (exempt)

 

If you end up re-submitting an application, it could be worth buying some aluminium tree tags for ID. Nothing worse than getting in a group of trees and trying to work out what work is down for what tree. At least that way the LA has no recourse to identification, you don't need to meet anyone and in two months appeal it if consent isn't forthcoming.

 

 

 

EDIT. Was the application verified or validated? A validation means that it has been accepted as a valid application, thus the mapping should have been adequate.

Edited November 26, 2014 by Gary Prentice

[Chris at eden]

Its borderline maladministration. If the validated the application there must be a plan otherwise they should not have. If its vague, they should refer back to you asking for clarification within the 8 weeks. At that I would go back to the surveyor and ask him to clarify, that is what he is paid for. I rarely get anything back from planning for my reports but if I do I clarify at no cost to the client. It would be my oversight. If they don't I wouldn't use them again.

 

There is no duty to replace protected trees in woodlands when they die so don't do that part as an application. Do it as Gary says as a 5 day notice. If you do it as an application they could condition it. It would probably be overturned under appeal but why go there. Remember your 5 day notice has to be in writing and contain enough information to ID the trees.

 

Cheers,

[armybloke]

Just to clarify a minor point that Chris makes. If the council have set a precedence of emailing you then the same can apply for you and a letter will not be necessary. An email, with photographic evidence of the trees exempt from the TPO (dead in your case) and clearly marked (red dot with paint is a clear and accepted method for felling) and await your five days - the five days in not necessarily a legal requirement but is a courteous gesture to show the Local Authority that you are in fact only doing as you have a right to do (make safe trees that could impact on person or property).

There is also a matter of expedience to abate a foreseeable nuisance but I don't think this will apply to you just yet.

I would ask your consultant to make it clear and mark which trees you can remove without redress as he should have done this already for you?

[Johny Walker]

i,l just add it was past the 8 wks wen they made contact,

[Philip Anderson]

Its borderline maladministration. If the validated the application there must be a plan otherwise they should not have. If its vague, they should refer back to you asking for clarification within the 8 weeks. At that I would go back to the surveyor and ask him to clarify, that is what he is paid for. I rarely get anything back from planning for my reports but if I do I clarify at no cost to the client. It would be my oversight. If they don't I wouldn't use them again.

 

There is no duty to replace protected trees in woodlands when they die so don't do that part as an application. Do it as Gary says as a 5 day notice. If you do it as an application they could condition it. It would probably be overturned under appeal but why go there. Remember your 5 day notice has to be in writing and contain enough information to ID the trees.

 

Cheers,

 

How's it borderline? If they have validated the application then they must have been satisfied that they could identify the trees ,and if they did not come back for further info within the statutory 8 weeks and it's now 19 weeks past that to me is sloppy ,too many councils do this to avoid decision making or as a stalling tactic in both tree and planning related matters.

I agree on submitting the 5 day notice but as said make sure they are as you say dead or dangerous and photograph to prove it.

I have emailed these notifications in the past.

[Gary Prentice]

We still don't know if the application was validated. Good councils send us an acknowledgement of receipt, stating that the application will be checked to ensure it is a valid application.

 

No-one has clarified whether the application, due to the identification issues, was valid. Anyway, it's a bit of a mute point. The options now are appeal or re-submit - for anything not dead or immediately dangerous.

 

If identification is the issue, an appeal is a waste of time. If the OP thinks the mapping is adequate, he can chance it through the fast track process -which I've had in 2-6 weeks. Or resubmit with clearer identification if necessary, or do both, withdrawing the appeal/application if the other gets a quick result

[Johny Walker]

We still don't know if the application was validated. Good councils send us an acknowledgement of receipt, stating that the application will be checked to ensure it is a valid application.

 

No-one has clarified whether the application, due to the identification issues, was valid. Anyway, it's a bit of a mute point. The options now are appeal or re-submit - for anything not dead or immediately dangerous.

 

If identification is the issue, an appeal is a waste of time. If the OP thinks the mapping is adequate, he can chance it through the fast track process -which I've had in 2-6 weeks. Or resubmit with clearer identification if necessary, or do both, withdrawing the appeal/application if the other gets a quick result

 

it was validated 0n 17th of july

[Chris at eden]

It is a legal requirement. See Regulation 14(2)(b) Town and Country Planning (Tree Preservation) Regulations 2012

 

I agree with Ed, the regs are clear on this and its not a courtesy. The only exception to the five day notice would be where the risk of serious harm is immediate. An example would be a large hanger over the road at the weekend. In that case you could do retrospective but you better be sure and have the evidence. Dead trees in the woods, five day would be my advice.

[Chris at eden]

Just to clarify a minor point that Chris makes. If the council have set a precedence of emailing you then the same can apply for you and a letter will not be necessary. An email, with photographic evidence of the trees exempt from the TPO (dead in your case) and clearly marked (red dot with paint is a clear and accepted method for felling) and await your five days - the five days in not necessarily a legal requirement but is a courteous gesture to show the Local Authority that you are in fact only doing as you have a right to do (make safe trees that could impact on person or property).

There is also a matter of expedience to abate a foreseeable nuisance but I don't think this will apply to you just yet.

I would ask your consultant to make it clear and mark which trees you can remove without redress as he should have done this already for you?

 

I'm intrigued, nuisance how?