Do You Need Permission to Cut Down a Tree in Warwickshire?

The short version

You generally need permission or must give notice in two situations: the tree is protected by a Tree Preservation Order, or the tree stands in a conservation area. Outside of those, an ordinary garden tree is yours to prune or remove. If you are unsure which camp your tree falls into, checking takes minutes and we do it as standard before any job.

Tree Preservation Orders

A Tree Preservation Order, or TPO, is a legal order made by the local council to protect specific trees or groups of trees. If a TPO applies, you need the council’s written consent before cutting down, topping, lopping or uprooting the tree, and that applies to pruning as well as removal.

Working on a TPO tree without consent is a criminal offence. Fines can reach £20,000 in the magistrates’ court and are unlimited in the most serious cases, and councils do prosecute. “I didn’t know it had a TPO” is not a defence, which is why the check matters.

The good news: applying for consent is free, and where there is a genuine reason for the work, such as a dangerous limb, decline or serious encroachment on a property, well prepared applications succeed. We handle the paperwork for customers regularly.

Conservation areas and the 6 week rule

Warwickshire has a lot of conservation areas, particularly in the older parts of towns like Leamington Spa, Warwick, Kenilworth and Stratford-upon-Avon, and in many village centres. Inside a conservation area, any tree with a trunk diameter of 75mm or more, measured at 1.5m above ground, is automatically protected even without its own TPO.

Before working on one, you must give the council 6 weeks’ written notice, known as a section 211 notice. The council cannot refuse the notice as such. Either it decides the tree deserves a TPO and makes one within the 6 weeks, or the notice period passes and the work can go ahead. It is a waiting rule rather than an approval rule, but skipping it carries the same penalties as breaching a TPO.

The exemptions worth knowing

There are sensible exemptions to both regimes, and they are the ones that matter most in practice:

• Dead trees can be removed, but you must give the council 5 working days’ written notice first so the condition can be verified. Removing dead branches from a living tree needs neither consent nor notice.
• Immediately dangerous trees can have the minimum work done to remove the immediate risk without waiting, with the council notified as soon as practicable afterwards. The key word is immediate: a tree that might become a problem next winter does not qualify.
• In both cases the burden of proof sits with the tree owner, so photographs and a written record of the tree’s condition before work are essential. This is something we document as a matter of course on jobs like these.
• Fruit trees cultivated for fruit production have their own exemption for pruning.

How to check your tree

Each council keeps its own TPO and conservation area records. For most of our patch that means Warwick District Council for Leamington, Warwick, Kenilworth and Whitnash, Stratford-on-Avon District Council for Stratford and the villages to the south, Rugby Borough Council around Rugby, and Coventry City Council in Coventry. Most have an online map search; all will confirm by phone or email.

Or skip the admin and tell us the address when you ask for a quote and we check the tree’s status before anything else. If a TPO application or a section 211 notice is needed, we prepare it as part of the job, so nothing gets missed and nothing starts before it legally can.

One more situation worth flagging: diseased trees, and ash dieback in particular, sit in a grey area people often get wrong. A declining ash is not automatically exempt just because it is sick, the dead and dangerous exemptions have specific meanings. We have covered the whole subject in our ash dieback guide.

If you are planning tree removal anywhere in Warwickshire, the permission check is step one and it costs you nothing. As a local tree surgeon in Warwickshire, we would far rather spend five minutes checking than have a customer pick up a fine that was completely avoidable. Get in touch for a free quote and we will take it from there.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I find out if my tree has a TPO?

Contact your local council or use their online TPO map if they have one. Or give us the address when requesting a quote and we will check it for you before any work is planned.

Can I prune a tree in a conservation area without notice?

Not if its trunk is 75mm or wider at 1.5m above ground. Pruning counts as work, so the 6 week notice applies to it just as it does to removal, unless an exemption such as deadwood applies.

What happens if a protected tree is dangerous right now?

The law allows the minimum work needed to remove an immediate risk without waiting for consent, but the danger must be genuine and immediate, the council must be told as soon as practicable, and you should keep photos as evidence of the condition.

Who is responsible if my tree damages a neighbour’s property?

As the owner of the land the tree stands on, you carry a duty of care for it. Regular checks, and a professional assessment where a tree shows signs of decline, are the practical way to stay on the right side of that.