Tree Removal near you

Start with the council. A Tree Preservation Order prohibits the cutting down, topping, lopping, uprooting, wilful damage or wilful destruction of a protected tree without the authority's consent, and an application is made on the standard form published by the Secretary of State with a plan clearly identifying the tree and reasons for the proposed work. Trees in a conservation area that are not already covered by an Order are dealt with by section 211 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990: you serve written notice with sufficient particulars to identify the tree, and you may then carry out the work either with consent or after the expiry of six weeks from the date of the notice, but before the expiry of two years from that date. Scotland and Northern Ireland have the same six weeks under their own statutes, section 172 of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 and section 127 of the Planning Act (Northern Ireland) 2011.

The penalties are why this is worth a phone call. Under section 210 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 a person who contravenes a Tree Preservation Order by cutting down, uprooting or wilfully destroying a tree is liable on summary conviction or on conviction on indictment to a fine, and the court must have regard to any financial benefit that has accrued or is likely to accrue from the offence; other breaches of an Order carry a fine not exceeding level 4 on the standard scale. Government guidance also records a duty to plant a replacement tree of an appropriate size and species at the same place.

A felling licence is a separate regime and is generally not the homeowner's problem. In England a licence is needed to fell growing trees over 8 centimetres over bark diameter measured at 1.3 metres above ground, or more than 5 cubic metres in a calendar quarter, of which up to 2 cubic metres may be sold. But section 9 of the Forestry Act 1967 excepts trees in a garden, orchard, churchyard or public open space, fruit trees, the topping or lopping of trees and the trimming or laying of hedges, and felling to prevent danger or abate a nuisance. Scottish Forestry administers felling permissions in Scotland, where most tree felling requires permission and you must not begin felling until written permission has been issued. In Northern Ireland the Forest Service licenses felling under the Forestry Act (Northern Ireland) 2010 for private woodlands of 0.2 hectares or more, and a licence is not required to fell fruit trees or trees in your garden, city parks or churchyards.

Removal is not the only answer to a problem tree, and if the tree is protected it may not be an available one. Crown reduction, crown thinning, deadwooding, removing a single failing limb or installing a bracing system can retain a tree that is structurally sound but inconvenient. A tree that is shading a lawn or blocking light often needs a reduction rather than a felling, and a tree that has dropped a limb in a gale is not automatically unsafe.

The honest version of this conversation involves someone looking at the tree, not at a photograph. A contractor who quotes to fell a mature tree without inspecting the base, the root plate and the crown is not giving you a professional opinion. Where a tree is protected, the local planning authority will want a reason for the work and may prefer reduction to removal, so an assessment of the tree's condition is usually needed to support an application. Consider too what replaces it: an open garden after a large tree comes out looks very different, and there may be a duty to plant a replacement.

Two protections routinely change the timing of a tree removal in Britain. Under section 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 it is an offence to intentionally kill, injure or take any wild bird, to take, damage or destroy the nest of any wild bird while that nest is in use or being built, or to take or destroy an egg, with recklessness also caught in Scotland. A tree with an active nest should be left until the birds have finished, and government guidance on countryside hedgerows describes the main nesting and breeding season as running from 1 March to 31 August.

Bats are the stricter constraint and the one most often missed on a tree job. Government guidance lists cutting down or removing branches from a mature tree among the activities that can harm bats, and it is an offence to damage or destroy a breeding site or resting place, with conviction carrying imprisonment of up to 6 months and an unlimited fine. Where work cannot avoid affecting bats or their roosts you can apply for a mitigation licence, issued in England by Natural England, and a survey by an expert is what establishes how bats are using a tree so the work can be planned to avoid harming them. Mature trees with cavities, split limbs, woodpecker holes or lifting bark are exactly the ones worth checking before the climber goes up.

Protection does not trap you with a hazardous tree, but it does require paperwork. Under the Town and Country Planning (Tree Preservation)(England) Regulations 2012, consent is not required for cutting down, topping, lopping or uprooting a tree which is dead, or for works urgently necessary to remove an immediate risk of serious harm. Notice must still be given to the authority in writing: as soon as practicable after the works become necessary in the urgent case, and at least five working days before starting in any other case. Government guidance adds that dead branches can be removed from a living tree without prior notice or consent.

The practical advice after a storm is to photograph the tree before anything is touched, keep the contractor's written assessment of why the work was urgent, and send the notice. Do not accept a contractor's assurance that the exemption covers a tree they are keen to fell; the exemption is for an immediate risk of serious harm, not for a tree somebody considers a nuisance. And be wary of storm-chasing callers offering to deal with a damaged tree straight away, which is a familiar pattern after high winds in Britain: check insurance and competence even when the tree is leaning on a shed.

Most garden trees in Britain cannot simply be felled in one piece; there is rarely room. The usual method is sectional dismantling, where a climber or a mobile elevating work platform is used to take the tree down in pieces, roping larger sections so they are lowered rather than dropped. Brushwood goes through a chipper on site, cordwood is cut and either stacked for you or taken away, and the ground is raked over. Work over a roof, a conservatory, a boundary fence or a pavement adds rigging, and sometimes a road closure or permission to work from the highway.

The stump is a separate decision and a separate cost. It can be left, ground out to below the surface so the ground can be turfed or paved, or dug out where a structure is going in. Grinding produces a large volume of chip and soil that has to be removed or reused, and roots close to a wall, a drain or a service can limit how deep a grinder can safely go, so agree the depth and what happens to the arisings before the machine arrives.

LokalMatch is where you set that brief out once. You describe the tree, its rough height and position, what stands beneath it, whether access is through a house or a side gate and whether you know of any Order on it, and matched tree surgeons covering your postcode get in touch with you directly. The professionals pay for the requests they receive. LokalMatch does not carry out tree work, does not set prices and does not vet, rank or recommend any company, so compare the method, the insurance and the certificates as carefully as the figure at the bottom.