Protected Trees for Landscapers & Garden Designers

Most of a tree's roots sit in the top 600 mm or so of soil and spread well beyond the canopy. Excavating for a patio base, a trench for cables or drainage, or a new footing can sever them. Raising the ground level or laying an impermeable surface can starve them of air and water.

The damage often shows years later as decline or instability, long after the job is signed off. Under a TPO, wilful damage to a protected tree, including its roots, needs the council's consent just as felling does, and the offence applies to whoever does the work.

The time to find a protected tree is before the layout is drawn, not when the digger arrives:

• Check for Tree Preservation Orders on the property and neighbouring land. A neighbour's protected tree can have roots under your client's garden.
• Check whether the property is in a conservation area, where most sizeable trees are protected through the six-week notice procedure.
• Ask the client whether any trees are covered by conditions on a past planning permission.

Knowing early lets you design around the tree rather than negotiate with the council after the event.

The usual reference is BS 5837:2012, Trees in relation to design, demolition and construction. It sets out a root protection area (RPA) for each tree: in its simplest form, a circle with a radius of 12 times the stem diameter measured at 1.5 m above ground.

Inside the RPA, excavation, level changes, storing materials and driving plant are all best avoided. Where work there can't be avoided, techniques such as no-dig surfacing, hand digging, and bridging over roots rather than cutting them can make it acceptable. For anything significant near a protected tree, an arboricultural method statement is worth having, and the council may ask for one.

If the planned work would cut roots or otherwise damage a protected tree, apply for consent before starting, in the same way as for pruning or felling. Where the tree is protected only by a conservation area, the six-week notice procedure applies to work on the tree itself.

Building the time into the programme is far cheaper than an enforcement notice, a replanting order or a prosecution. Tree officers are generally open to pre-application conversations about work near trees, and a sensible no-dig design often gets a quick yes.

Keep a dated note on the job file of what you checked, what you found and what you agreed with the client about the trees, alongside photos of the trees and ground before work started. If a tree declines later and questions are asked, that record shows the work was planned with the tree in mind.

TPO Checker Pro gives you a dated report for any English address covering TPOs, conservation areas, Article 4 directions and listed buildings, with your firm's logo and contact details on it. It is a quick first check at design stage and something to hand the client with the proposal. Where a council doesn't publish its TPO data, the report says so plainly, so you know when to ask the tree officer.