Tree Work in Conservation Areas: the 6-Week Notice Rule

Tree work in a conservation area requires 6 weeks' written notice to the local planning authority before you cut down, top, lop or uproot any tree with a trunk wider than 7.5cm — even when the tree has no Tree Preservation Order. This is Section 211 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, and the penalties for skipping it match TPO penalties: an unlimited fine if a tree is destroyed.

Why conservation areas protect trees automatically

A conservation area is designated for its architectural or historic character, and trees are treated as part of that character. Rather than ordering every tree individually, the law gives the council a 6-week window to look at any proposed work and decide whether the tree deserves a formal TPO. About 10,000 conservation areas exist in England alone, so this catches far more trees than TPOs do.

What you must do before working on a tree

Send the council a written “Section 211 notice” describing the work and identifying the tree — most councils accept it through their planning portal or by email to the planning department, and there is no fee. Then one of three things happens:

• the council makes a TPO, and you need formal consent for the work;
• the council tells you it has no objection, and you can start immediately; or
• 6 weeks pass with no decision, and you may carry out the work exactly as described, within 2 years of the notice.

Starting early is a criminal offence even if the council would have had no objection.

Which trees are covered

Any tree in the conservation area with a trunk diameter over 7.5cm, measured at 1.5m above ground level. The threshold rises to 10cm when you are thinning trees to help others grow. Hedges, bushes and shrubs are not covered.

Exemptions

The main exemptions mirror TPO exemptions: dead trees, trees that present an urgent danger, work required by another Act of Parliament, and fruit trees cultivated for fruit production in the course of a business. For a dangerous tree you should give the council 5 days' notice where possible, photograph the defect first, and keep the evidence — the burden of proving an exemption sits with whoever did the work.

Penalties

Destroying a tree in a conservation area without notice carries an unlimited fine, and courts take account of any financial benefit (a plot cleared for development, say). Other unauthorised work carries a fine of up to £2,500. Councils can also require a replacement tree of an appropriate size and species in the same place.

How this interacts with TPOs

The two regimes stack. If a tree in a conservation area also has a TPO, the TPO rules take over: you need the council's consent, not just 6 weeks' silence. If you are unsure whether a tree has a TPO, check the postcode on our TPO map and see our guide to how conservation areas and TPOs differ.

How to check whether a property is in a conservation area

Councils publish their conservation-area boundaries individually. The national compiled dataset on planning.data.gov.uk covers most of England, and each of our conservation-area pages shows one area's boundary on a map with the designating authority and its documentation. The council's own record is definitive — always confirm with them before committing to work near a boundary.