How to get permission to prune trees in a Chatham conservation area, week by week.
People call it a conservation area permit. The paperwork is actually a notice: you tell Medway Council what you plan to do to a tree and then wait six weeks. There is no fee, no form you have to buy, and most of the effort is in getting the details right before you send it.
This guide is the application walkthrough. If you want the wider rules first, our section 211 notice timeline covers what the law is for and how it sits alongside the nesting season. Here we go step by step, using Medway Council's own pages.
In short
- The route is a section 211 notice under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, sent to Medway Council at least six weeks before the work.
- It applies to trees with a trunk over 75mm across at 1.5m above the ground. A clipped hedge on its own is not normally a tree, but tall trees standing in or beside it can be.
- The council can make a Tree Preservation Order (TPO) within the six weeks or not object. It cannot refuse a notice or attach conditions. If it stays silent, you can do the work within two years of the date of the notice.
- Cutting a protected tree without notice is a criminal offence: up to £20,000 in the magistrates' court, unlimited in the Crown Court.
Which trees need notice?
This is the part people get wrong in both directions. Some assume every hedge trim needs paperwork. Others assume a hedge cannot be a tree. Here are the facts as GOV.UK sets them out in its 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. Put a tape round the trunk at 1.5m above the ground (about 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: a tape reads 60cm round a leylandii trunk. 60 divided by 3.14 is about 19cm across, well over 75mm, so that tree needs notice before it is topped or reduced. A privet stem in the same hedge measuring 8cm round is about 25mm across and does not.
What kind of work triggers notice. Cutting down, topping, lopping, uprooting, and wilful damage or destruction. In everyday terms: felling, crown reduction, heavy pruning, cutting through roots or scraping bark off with a machine. A light trim that keeps a clipped hedge to its existing shape is not normally treated as lopping a tree, and clipping the hedge plants themselves normally does not need notice. Hard reduction of the main stems, or topping trees that have grown up through a hedge, does. Where you are not sure, ask the council in writing before anyone touches a blade.
A typical Chatham case. A 1980s leylandii screen along the back boundary of a garden in Luton or Walderslade, planted as a hedge, now 8m tall and left to run. Each trunk passes the size test, so reducing it needs notice. The tidy privet hedge along the front of the same house does not. Separately, the Hedgerow Regulations 1997 cover the removal of countryside hedgerows. That is a different regime from this notice and rarely touches a town garden.
The application, week by week
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Day 0: is your address in a conservation area?
Medway lists 24 conservation areas. The ones with Chatham in the name are Chatham Historic Dockyard, Maidstone Road Chatham and New Road Chatham, and Brompton Lines sits on the Chatham and Gillingham border. Others, such as Gillingham Park, Star Hill and Upnor, are nearby. Medway's conservation areas page has the full list and a map for each.
To check an address, open Medway's interactive map, search for your street and switch on the Conservation Areas layer. If the boundary passes through your garden, treat the whole property as covered and ask the council to confirm.
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Day 0: is it a tree, and is it already protected?
Run the size test above. If the trunk passes, check for a Tree Preservation Order on the same map with the Tree Preservation Orders layer on. Medway's check if a tree is protected page explains how, and has an online enquiry form if the map leaves you unsure.
A tree with a TPO needs a full application for consent, not a notice, and Medway allows up to eight weeks for it. The rest of this guide is for trees that are protected only because of the conservation area.
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Days 1 to 7: decide the work and photograph it
Write down exactly what you want, tree by tree. "Tidy the trees" will bounce back for more detail. Medway asks for a clear specification with the size before and after, and gives the example of a T1 oak reduced by 1m, from 8 metres to 7. Take photographs of each tree from two sides, plus one showing the whole row against the house or fence.
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Days 1 to 7: gather what the council asks for
Medway's apply to work on a protected tree page lists the submission: 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 sketch map, the species and condition of each tree, and your interest in the land. A sketch does not need to be to scale, but it should show distances to the house, boundary and road.
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Day 7 or so: submit, and note the date
Medway asks you to apply online through the Planning Portal: enter the postcode and pick "Tree works: Trees in conservation areas/subject to TPOs". If you cannot apply online, the council says to print the paper 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. The six weeks are counted from the date of the notice, so keep the confirmation email.
What to write in the notice, for the leylandii example: "13 Example Road, Chatham ME5. Trees T1 to T6, six Leyland cypress in a line along the rear boundary, trunks 150 to 220mm across at 1.5m. Proposed work: reduce height from about 8m to about 7m and trim sides back by 0.5m, staying within live foliage. Reason: the row now shades the garden and the neighbouring conservatory and has outgrown its space. Sketch and photographs attached. Contractor: Chatham Hedges & Tree Services." Replace the details with your own and keep it that specific.
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Weeks 1 to 6: the council's window
Medway can do one of three things. It can make a TPO on a tree it wants to keep, and then you need a separate application. It can tell you the work can go ahead. Or it can say nothing, in which case the six weeks run out and the work can go ahead. A section 211 notice is not an application for consent, so the council cannot refuse it or add conditions, even though its own page talks about applications and decisions. Work can start early only if the council gives its consent.
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Week 7 onwards, up to two years: the work day
Once the six weeks have passed with no TPO, you have two years from the date of the notice to do exactly what it described. Use a competent, insured contractor, and keep the notice, the confirmation email and the council's reply together in case anyone asks. If the work is more than the notice said, you need a new notice. The nesting season still applies: under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, section 1, it is an offence to damage a nest that is in use or being built. The Act sets no calendar dates, but RSPB and GOV.UK guidance is to avoid cutting from roughly 1 March to 31 August. See our cutting calendar for how the two clocks fit together, and our staged leylandii reduction guide if the trees are conifers.
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Any day: dead or dangerous trees
A dead tree needs five working days' written notice to the council before the work. Where a tree presents an immediate risk of serious harm and the work is urgent, you give written notice as soon as practicable after it becomes necessary, and you cut only as much as removes the risk. Medway also has a separate 5 day notice route for protected trees causing immediate danger to life or property, where the council aims to respond within 5 working days. Its page does not say whether that route covers a conservation area tree, so ask the council first. Photograph the tree first. Dead wood on a living tree can be removed without notice. Anyone who removes a tree in a conservation area, even a dead or dangerous one, has a duty to plant a replacement of a suitable size and species.
Not sure which of your trees need notice?
We will come and look. We measure the trunks, tell you which trees in the hedge would need a section 211 notice and which would not, and help you word the notice. When the notice period has passed we carry out the pruning or reduction described in it. Send your postcode and a couple of photos to hello@chathamhedges.co.uk, or call or WhatsApp 07763 100 477. Our tree pruning page explains the work itself.
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.