New TPOs within an existing Area TPO.

[Gary Prentice]

Gary

 

You are dependent on the Council's records for saying whether there is a TPO and/or CA protection status. As things may change and new TPOs served and old ones revoked you should not rely on previous enquiries to the Council. I accept that was poor practice on our partClearly if the Council is in the habit of non-communication on top of shambolic administration there are a number of potential flaws.

 

In such circumstances and assuming you are not in too much of a hurry and want to play safe I would just submit an application assuming there is a tree preservation order and then it will be for the Council to tell you there is not. This might not be appropriate in every case (i.e. where there is not, but the Council may serve a TPO if they knew of the work) but they may get the message if you file a lot of applications......which are very easy to generate on the planning portal. As a contracting business, we're searching several addresses daily, generally now we are informed of both TPOs and CAs and we do ask about the surrounding properties.

 

If the Council don't acknowledge a s211 notification and thus don't tell you that there is a TPO in place and you start work after 6 weeks on the basis that 6 weeks have passed then you may end up in a difficult situation. If this is a situation likely to re-occur you might need to send in a formal request for information on "any TPOs covering this area" and attach a plan outlining the area......I'm a pedant I'll send in plans, google maps, whatever necessary if I have any doubts or think there my be any misunderstanding alternatively approach the Land Charges department of the Council. They are likely to charge but you should get a definitive answer, other than for the most recently served TPOs.

 

I am currently dealing with an old TPO where there is no evidence of confirmation but plenty of evidence of previous applications and refusal notices........the case gets more interesting when you consider the implications of this situation.

 

I had a situation where an order hadn't been confirmed for eight years. The LA gave consent for pruning works two or three times during this period. Investigating further, I came across a memo from the planning officer to Legal requesting the order be confirmed! The date being the same as the Decision notice.

 

My objections that the extended period between issue and confirmation meant that interested parties would have changed in the interim fell on death ears.

 

 

I spoke to the planning officer this week (not about this) and he asked me if I knew of any prosecution carried out by 'his' council and was I aware of successful prosecutions by other councils! Our local council don't prosecute, period. I feel like giving up and jumping on the 'free for all' bandwagon. we try to be professional but why bother?