MaxD54

Will make sure to update as I am progressing this through. Thanks to everyone who contributed. Super helpful.

This is the issue I have, what gives the council the right to do this? How are they allowed to suddenly declare that all trees are to be considered TPO'd until the building work is complete? Surely, the Council also have to follow the law, and it feels like an overzealous council officer is currently operating outside the legal framework they have been given.

@John Shutler, thanks for that but my main question remains: why can’t I decide myself whether or not I want to safeguard my trees as they are all TPO free?

Unfortunately, it is not as simple as removing trees ahead of time. As you can see in the report, I have got quite a lot of trees in my garden, a lot of them are mature trees providing great coverage which I want to keep. I think that even if I had one single tree left on the property, they will make me take all these measures… I find it surreal to be in this position tbh, I didn’t know there was an arboricultural mafia out there, proper extortion that is.

Yes, according to them, they have no choice, this is what they need to provide as they have to comply with the British Standard "Trees in Relation to Design, Demolition and Construction to Construction - Recommendations" (BS 5837)...which seems a bit too convenient to me as this represents a significant upsell opportunity on top of the cost of their survey report. Could the council act as an independent advisor re this? After all, I understand why this report was needed in the first place. They wanted to make sure I was not going to damage TPO trees and neighbouring trees. The fact the ARB company came back with all these pre-requisites, basically trying to force me to safeguard my own non TPO trees, might not be what the council had in mind, and therefore might let me ignore most of their (excessive) recs.

I have anonymised this report that they provided that summarised all the work to be done. You'll notice the trees at the back of the garden and see the various sites where they want protective footing/ground boarding/etc... Hopefully it will help get a feel for the scope of what they are asking for. As for the reasons for removing some of the trees, it's basically public safety according to them as some of them are in a poor physical condition....but still 20m away from the site.... "For reasons of public safety, all tree works referred to herein must be carried out prior to any site personnel commencing works or any building materials being delivered." BS5837 - AMS (anonymised).pdf

You mean, things like supervised excavation don't need to be done by a professional/arboriculturist? Reports says: " All excavations within and immediately adjacent to RPAs are to be undertaken under direct on-site arboricultural supervision" Noted about talking to the arboriculturalist. Will give it a go. Thx for the suggestion.

@monkeybusiness, AMS not yet submitted to the council. I am trying to get educated on the topic before I do so. @Doug Tait, I somewhat naively walked into this thinking, my house, my land, my trees (no protection area + no TPOs) therefore I get to decide how (and if) I want to take care of them. The council wanting to check I am not going to damage surrounding trees that I don't own, it's fine, but being forced to abide by a report that forces me to take care of MY OWN trees seems wrong. @Joe Newton, we are on the same page, it's exactly what I am thinking. Who do you think I should turn to get a second opinion ?

Hello everyone, given I have been looking on the web for answers for days unsuccessfully, I thought I'd try my luck here. We are building an extension at the back of our house into our garden. After many back and forth, the council finally gave us approval if the following condition is met: -------- Prior to the commencement of the development an arboricultural tree report and tree protection plan shall be submitted through the submission of an application of approval of details to the Local Planning Authority. The details submitted should be in accordance with BS5837:2012. Reason: To safeguard existing trees on site and trees at neighbouring sites Reason for pre-commencement condition: These impacts can arise at any time -------- Rather happy about this outcome, we went ahead and hired a company to produce a Arboricultural Method Statement. First surprise was the cost, I was expecting £500, ended up paying £2,500 but I digress slightly... The massive surprise was the amount of work the report is saying we have to do prior to the construction work commencing, things such as: - Cutting down 3 trees, one of them is fine as it is close to the new foundation, but the others are at the back of our garden, 20 meters away from the site! - Demolition and excavation needs to be supervised by an arboricultural consultant. - Ground boarding needs to be provided - Protective Fencing need to be installed Not only all of this seem super excessive (and costly!), but more importantly, I am not interested in implementing all of this, I am happy to take a risk and potentially damage some of the trees in my garden. None of them being under Tree Protection Order by the way. The trees from the neighbours are far from the sites so nothing to worry about on this front. My questions are: - Am I being the victim of the company I hired for the AMS and they are trying to upsell me more services down the line? - Do I have to follow these recommendations to the letter? Or they are just recommendations and I am free to ignore them? Note the report is phrased in such a way that I am not allowed to commence the work if their instructions are not followed. (edit) I forgot to add I had a conversation with a representative in the company that produced the AMS and they mentioned that although none of my trees are under Tree Protection Order, the fact I am now going through planning application, it's apparently the same as if they were all under TPO...which means we have to comply with everything in the report. I have to admit something does not quite sound right to me....