Applying for permission to prune trees in a Rochester conservation area: the questions, in the order you will meet them.
Most people ask the same questions, in the same order, when a tree in their Rochester garden turns out to be covered by a conservation area. Here they are with straight answers, using Medway Council's own pages.
Q. Everyone calls it a conservation area permit. Is that what I need to apply for?
Nearly. In England the paperwork is a section 211 notice under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, not a permit. You tell Medway Council what work you plan on a tree and then wait at least six weeks. It costs nothing. The council cannot refuse it, but it can answer by putting a Tree Preservation Order on the tree, which is the council's way of saying no. If you would like the background first, our conservation area Q&A covers what the rule is for. This one is the how-to.
Q. Step one. How do I find out whether my house is in a conservation area?
Medway lists 24 conservation areas. The ones with Rochester in the name are Historic Rochester, New Road Rochester, and Watts Avenue and Roebuck Road Rochester, and there are two more nearby, Star Hill and Star Hill to Sun Pier. The council's conservation areas page lists all of them and has a map for each.
The quickest check is Medway's interactive map. Search for your address and switch on the Conservation Areas layer. I would not rely on memory or on what a neighbour says: boundaries follow odd lines, and one side of a street can be in while the other is out. If your garden is split by the line, ask the council.
Q. Step two. My hedge is only privet and laurel. Do I even need to worry?
Possibly not, and the next section is there to settle it. The rule is about trees, not hedges. A hedge kept clipped as a hedge is not normally treated as a tree. But a tall beech, yew or hornbeam standing in or beside it, or a laurel or leylandii screen left to grow into trunks, can be. While you are checking, look for a TPO too: it is on the same map with the Tree Preservation Orders layer on, and Medway's check if a tree is protected page has an online enquiry form if you are unsure. A tree with a TPO needs a full application for consent, and the council allows up to eight weeks for it, so it is a different route.
Which trees need notice?
This is the size and type check. It comes from the GOV.UK guidance on trees in conservation areas.
| Question | Answer | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| How big must the trunk be? | Over 75mm (7.5cm) across, measured over the bark at 1.5m above ground level. At or under 75mm, no notice is needed. | GOV.UK guidance on trees in conservation areas |
| Any smaller exception? | Cutting down or uprooting a tree up to 100mm across is exempt only when the sole purpose is to improve the growth of other trees (thinning). It does not cover topping or lopping. | GOV.UK guidance |
| Which species? | Any. Native or non-native, evergreen or deciduous. Leylandii, laurel, hornbeam, beech, field maple, ash, yew and fruit trees all count if the trunk passes the size test. | The law protects trees, not a list of species |
| Several stems? | Measure each stem at 1.5m. If any single stem is over 75mm, the exemption is lost for that tree. | GOV.UK guidance |
| Hedge plants? | A hedge is not normally a tree. Trees growing in or beside a hedge, or a hedge that has grown out into a line of trees, can be. The council decides on the ground. | GOV.UK guidance |
| Fruit trees? | Commercially grown fruit trees, worked in the interests of the business, are exempt. Other fruit trees can be pruned in line with good horticultural practice. Felling or hard cutting back is not covered. | GOV.UK guidance |
| Dead or dangerous? | Dead: five working days' written notice first. Immediate risk of serious harm: written notice as soon as practicable after the work. | GOV.UK guidance |
How to measure. Wrap a tape round the trunk at 1.5m above the ground, roughly chest height. 75mm across is a girth of about 236mm, so a tape round the trunk at 1.5m reading more than about 24cm means the tree passes the size test. The sum is girth divided by 3.14 to get the diameter. Worked example: in a long back garden in one of Rochester's older streets, a row of hornbeam has grown out with two standards behind it. The tape reads 72cm round the biggest standard. 72 divided by 3.14 is about 23cm, well over 75mm, so pruning it needs notice. The clipped hornbeam below is 12cm round on its thickest stem, about 38mm across, so it does not.
What triggers notice. Cutting down, topping, lopping, uprooting, and wilful damage or destruction. In plain terms: felling, crown reduction, heavy pruning, cutting through roots, stripping bark. Clipping the hedge plants themselves to keep an existing shape does not normally count. Reducing the main stems hard, or topping trees that have grown up through the hedge, does. If in doubt, ask the council in writing before anyone starts.
Countryside hedgerows are a separate regime under the Hedgerow Regulations 1997, which are about removal and rarely come up in a town garden.
Q. Step three. Two trunks pass the test. What do I do before I write anything?
Decide the work precisely, tree by tree, and photograph it. Medway wants a full and clear specification with measurements before and after, so "reduce the height of the yew" is not enough. Their own example is one oak, height reduced by 1m, from 8 metres to 7. Take photographs of each tree from two sides, and one wide shot showing the row against the house or fence. Number the trees T1, T2 and so on on a rough sketch. That sketch does not need to be to scale, but it should show the distance to the house, the boundary and the road.
Q. Step four. What does Medway actually want to receive?
Medway's apply to work on a protected tree page lists it: the application form, a plan showing where the trees are, a statement of the reasons for the work, and the full specification. The Planning Portal's works to trees page adds the species and condition of each tree and your interest in the land, meaning whether you own it or have the owner's permission. Nothing else is needed and there is no fee.
Q. Step five. Where do I send it, and what do I put in it?
Medway asks you to apply online through the Planning Portal. Enter your postcode and choose "Tree works: Trees in conservation areas/subject to TPOs". If you cannot apply online, the council says to print the form and post it to The Planning Service, Gun Wharf, Dock Road, Chatham, Kent, ME4 4TR. Medway says it will email within about five working days to say whether the submission is valid or needs more detail. Keep that email: the six weeks run from the date of the notice.
What I would write, for a Rochester-style case: "Rear garden of 9 Example Street, Rochester ME1. T1, beech standard, trunk 260mm across at 1.5m; T2, yew, trunk 190mm. Proposed work: T1, crown reduction by up to 1.5m, from about 12m to 10.5m, and remove one dead limb; T2, lift lower crown to 2.5m above ground. Reason: T1 is heavy over the neighbouring garage and T2 leans on the fence. Sketch and photographs attached." Swap in your own facts and keep it that specific.
Q. Step six. What happens in the six weeks, and can they say no?
Not in the way people expect. A section 211 notice is not an application for consent, so the council cannot refuse it or attach conditions. It has three moves: make a TPO on a tree it wants to keep, tell you the work can go ahead, or do nothing and let the six weeks run out. If a TPO arrives, you need a separate consent application for that tree. The work can only start early with the council's consent. Medway's own page uses words like application and decision, but the legal position is the one above.
Q. Step seven. Six weeks are up and the council has said nothing. Can we go ahead?
Yes, and you then have two years from the date of the notice to carry out exactly what it described. If you want more, you send a new notice. Use a competent, insured contractor, and keep the notice, the confirmation email and any reply together. The nesting season still applies: under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, section 1, damaging an active nest is an offence, and the closure runs roughly 1 March to 31 August (see our cutting Q&A). Cutting a protected tree without notice is a criminal offence: up to £20,000 in the magistrates' court and unlimited in the Crown Court, plus a duty to plant a replacement.
Q. Step eight. What if a tree is dead, or a storm has left it dangerous?
Different rules. For a dead tree you give five working days' written notice before the work. Where a tree poses an immediate risk of serious harm and the work is urgent, you give written notice as soon as practicable after it becomes necessary, and cut only as much as removes the risk. Medway's page calls this an emergency 5 day notice. Photograph the tree first. Removing dead wood from a living tree needs no notice. If you take a tree out in a conservation area, dead or dangerous, you still have a duty to plant a replacement. Our storm damage Q&A covers what to check first and the nesting-season rules.
Want someone to look at the trees first?
I will come and look at the hedge, measure the trunks and tell you which of the trees in it would need a section 211 notice and which would not. Once the notice period has passed, we do the pruning or reduction it describes. Email hello@rochesterhedges.co.uk or call or WhatsApp 07763 100 477 with your postcode and a couple of photos. The work itself is on our tree pruning & surgery page.
Sources: GOV.UK, Tree Preservation Orders and trees in conservation areas; Planning Portal, works to trees; Town and Country Planning Act 1990, section 211; Medway Council pages on protected trees and conservation areas; Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, section 1. Council processes change, so confirm the current steps on Medway's site before you send anything.