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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....

Hi, We are currently trying to encourage a greater use of our online application service on the Planning Portal (Planning Portal - The UK Government's online planning and building regulations resource). Its free to use, available 24/7/365, saves on paper, ink, postage etc etc. We are working on away of submitting a tree application from your iphone or android phone - would this be of use to you? If you want to find out more please replay to this post or e-mail me direct on [email protected] or 07990 551807. Ashley

Hi, I’m after some help and after having a look around this forum, this seems like a pretty good place to get some sound advice. I live in London and our neighbours have applied for a 25% reduction only of an Oak tree (covered by a TPO) at the bottom of their garden as it’s blocking out light. In principle I have no problem with this, but I am worried that the application is too vague – it simply states “25% reduction” and does not mention whether that will be leaf cover, crown, height etc. The tree currently has a wonderful Oak-y shape and is a beautiful feature. I have no aboriculturist experience but have read several posts here and it seems that there are many different opinions on which method is best for reducing a tree to allow more light through. Also it seems that there are different points of view on whether the customer is the priority or the tree. As I am assuming that the customer’s priority is more light, my priority is making sure that is combined with treating the tree in the most sustainable way possible. The main advice I need is: Should I ask them to clarify the application and state which method of reduction they would anticipate using or would this be too much of a constraint for those working on the tree? I want to make sure that the tree is dealt with in a sympathetic way ie – that the method/amount of reduction is dependant on what is best for the tree but I do not know how best to phrase this – especially as I do not know what I’m talking about (!) and I will not be dealing with whoever has to cut the tree. I’m worried about someone just lopping away wily-nilly. Should I ask for conditions to the application? I intent to reply to the application anyway as I have seen bats flying around the tree at night (although I do not know whether they have a roost in the tree itself), which I think might have to be taken into consideration (?). Any advice or comments are very welcome, thanks.