How to Get a TPO Put on a Tree

Anyone can ask a Local Planning Authority to make a TPO — neighbour, passer-by, parish council, community group. You do not need the landowner's agreement, and there is no fee.

The council's test is whether an order is expedient in the interests of amenity: broadly, whether the tree contributes enough to its surroundings — visibility from public places, size and form, rarity, screening, its part in a group — to justify protection, and whether that contribution is at risk. Councils are not obliged to protect every good tree; a credible threat is often what tips the decision.

A specific, evidenced request is far easier to act on than "please save the big tree on Elm Road". Include:

• The exact location — address, what the tree stands beside, and a marked map or what3words if the position is ambiguous.
• The species if you know it, and rough size or age.
• Photographs, ideally showing the tree in its setting from public viewpoints.
• Why it matters: what it screens, frames or shades, its visibility to the public, wildlife value, any local history.
• The threat, as concretely as you can — a felling notice, contractors on site, a planning application, a new owner clearing the plot.

Send it to the council's tree officer or planning department, in writing, and keep a copy.

Councils can act fast when they need to. A new TPO normally takes effect provisionally the moment it is made and served, protecting the tree straight away while the council decides whether to confirm it.

So if chainsaws are expected imminently: telephone the council's tree officer as well as writing, say clearly that felling is imminent, and follow up with the evidence the same day. Out of hours, some councils route urgent tree matters through their emergency planning or duty officer line. The order has to be in place before the tree comes down — nothing revives a felled tree.

The council will usually inspect the tree and decide whether to make an order. If it does, the owner and neighbours are notified and can object; the council then has six months to confirm the order, with or without modifications, before the provisional protection lapses.

Be realistic on two fronts. The council may decline — resources are thin, and a tree with no visible threat may simply be noted rather than protected. And an order is not a preservation in amber: the owner can still apply for consent to prune or even fell, and the council decides each application on its merits.

There is no formal appeal against a decision not to make a TPO, but you are not out of options:

• Ask for the reasons, and whether better evidence — an arborist's note on the tree's condition and amenity value, more photographs, proof of threat — would change the assessment.
• Raise it through your parish or town council, local councillor or a residents' association; collective requests carry more weight.
• If the threat comes from a planning application, object within that application and raise the trees there — conditions protecting trees can be attached to a permission.
• If the tree is in a conservation area, sizeable trees already have notice-based protection, which may be enough.

Keep your evidence — if circumstances change, a fresh request starts from a stronger place.