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Tree Preservation Orders in Gravesend: the consent route before any work begins.

Gravesend and the wider Gravesham borough have a notable stock of protected trees, including mature specimens in and around the town's older residential streets, its riverside open spaces and the villages further inland. A Tree Preservation Order is not a theoretical risk on this patch: I check the register before quoting on any tree job in the borough, because the penalty for getting it wrong is a criminal offence, not a planning infringement you can negotiate retrospectively.

What the law says

Sections 198 to 214 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 give local planning authorities in England the power to make Tree Preservation Orders. The procedure for making and administering them is set out in the Town and Country Planning (Tree Preservation) (England) Regulations 2012. An Order identifies specific trees, groups of trees or woodlands and prohibits any "works" to them without prior written consent from the local planning authority (in Gravesend, that is Gravesham Borough Council).

The offence is at section 210 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. Carrying out works to a protected tree without consent, or causing or permitting another person to do so, is a criminal offence. The maximum penalty on summary conviction in a magistrates' court is £20,000. If the case goes to the Crown Court there is no upper limit on the fine. The court is required to take into account any financial benefit the defendant gained from the offence when setting the level of fine, which matters when felling a protected tree to make way for development.

What works require consent

The 2012 Regulations use a deliberately wide definition. Consent is required before you:

• Cut down or uproot the tree.
• Top or lop the tree (cutting the main stem or any major branch).
• Wilfully damage or destroy the tree, including by poisoning, burning or severing major structural roots.
• Carry out works to a tree that are likely to destroy it, even if destruction is not the stated intention.

Routine deadwooding, crown thinning, crown reduction and crown raising all fall within "works" requiring consent, not just outright felling. If the job is anything more than removing a single dead branch from an otherwise healthy tree, the consent question applies.

Key exemptions

Specific exemptions are built into the Regulations and are worth knowing:

1. Dead trees and dead branches. Removing dead branches from an otherwise living protected tree does not require consent or notice. A tree that is actually dead can be cut down without consent, but you must give the council at least five working days' written notice first. Dying, diseased or declining trees are not covered by this exemption, and neither is dormant growth.
2. Urgent works to prevent immediate danger. Where works are immediately necessary to remove a risk of serious harm to persons or property, Regulation 14 of the 2012 Regulations allows them to proceed without prior consent, provided the owner notifies Gravesham Borough Council in writing as soon as practicable after the work becomes necessary. This is a genuine emergency exemption: it applies when a structurally failing tree presents immediate risk, not when a tree is inconvenient or has been allowed to reach a problematic size over years without intervention.
3. Works required under a statutory obligation. If another piece of statute legally compels works to a protected tree (a highway authority requiring clearance of a visibility splay, for example), those works may proceed without TPO consent. The statutory duty must be genuine and documented.

How to check whether a tree is protected

A TPO covers the specific trees named or mapped in the Order. There is no standard minimum size: an Order can protect a small ornamental tree if the local authority considers it of sufficient amenity value. The only reliable way to know whether a specific tree carries a TPO is to check Gravesham Borough Council's register of protected trees.

Gravesham Borough Council publishes TPO information through their planning service, and many Orders are visible on the planning authority's interactive mapping tool. If you are not certain how to read the map, a short call or email to the council's planning or trees team asking whether a specific tree at a specific address is subject to a TPO will give you a definitive written answer. I always ask for that confirmation in writing, because a verbal "no TPO" is not a defence in court.

How to apply for TPO consent

The application for consent to carry out works to a protected tree is submitted to Gravesham Borough Council via the Planning Portal or direct to the planning department. The application itself carries no fee: consent to work on a protected tree is free to apply for.

The application needs to describe:

• The tree or trees to be worked on (a sketch map showing the tree's location in relation to boundaries and buildings is standard).
• The species and, where known, approximate age and trunk diameter.
• The works you are proposing, described specifically: crown reduction by a stated amount, removal of specified dead branches, or felling with or without a replacement planting commitment.
• The reason for the works, which should be honest and specific. "The tree is too large" is not a reason that carries weight; "three major lateral branches are dead and present a risk to the building below" with supporting evidence will be assessed differently.

What happens after consent is granted

Consent is usually granted subject to conditions, the most common being a requirement to replant with a specified species at a specified size if a tree is being felled, or a restriction on the scale of pruning. The conditions are binding: carrying out works beyond the scope of the consent, or failing to meet a replanting condition, is a separate breach. Where I am engaged for TPO-consented work I make it my practice to read the consent document carefully before quoting the job, because conditions occasionally require an arboricultural specification (British Standard BS 3998:2010) that affects how the work is priced and programmed.

TPOs and conservation areas: how the two systems overlap

A tree in one of Gravesham's 23 conservation areas may or may not carry a TPO. The two protection regimes are independent:

• A TPO tree in a conservation area needs TPO consent from Gravesham Borough Council. The conservation area does not add a separate layer in that case: the TPO is the governing requirement.
• A non-TPO tree in a conservation area, where the trunk exceeds 75mm in diameter at 1.5 metres from the ground, requires a six-week written notice to Gravesham Borough Council under section 211 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 before any significant works. That notice process is covered in the conservation areas guide.

In practice, mature trees in Gravesham's conservation areas often have both: a TPO made at some point in the past sits alongside the section 211 protection the conservation area designation automatically confers. In those cases, TPO consent is the operative requirement. It is worth checking both registers when addressing a tree in a conservation-area postcode.

What this looks like in Gravesend

In the older residential streets and around the riverside open spaces, mature trees that pre-date the surrounding housing are the ones most likely to carry an Order, and large trees are easy to spot when they come down. Check the register for the specific tree rather than assuming either way.

Out in the villages, older field-boundary and churchyard-edge trees can carry Orders made decades ago, so a tree that looks like an ordinary farm-boundary specimen may be protected. That is not a reason to avoid work in the villages: it is a reason to check before starting.

Sources: Town and Country Planning Act 1990, sections 198-214; Town and Country Planning (Tree Preservation) (England) Regulations 2012; GOV.UK, "Tree Preservation Orders and trees in conservation areas" (planning guidance); Planning Portal, "Works to Trees: Consent types"; British Standard BS 3998:2010, tree work recommendations; Gravesham Borough Council, trees and hedges guidance.