Tree Charter

Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council Tree Charter

Purpose of this Charter

In the Borough of Basingstoke and Deane we are fortunate in having a rich diversity of trees and significant woodland cover compared with other parts of the country. The council seeks to ensure that this resource is protected and maintained for current and future generations, whilst addressing the risks associated with trees and seeking to minimise the inconvenience that they can sometimes cause, particularly in built up areas. However, with over 45,000 trees in its ownership, 3,000 privately- and council-owned trees protected by tree preservation orders, and many more by conservation area status, the council has to carefully prioritise its services in order to achieve these aims. This charter explains these priorities in relation to the services that we provide directly to the public and the standards that we aim to meet.

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Protection of Important Trees

The council provides three main services to ensure the protection of important trees: responding to enquiries about whether or not trees are protected; responding to reports of unauthorised work; and considering requests to protect important trees with preservation orders. The following timescales and standards apply:

• Protected Tree Enquiries. We aim to let you know if a tree is protected within 1 working day of receiving your enquiry.

• Unauthorised Work. If you report work being undertaken to a protected tree, which is unauthorised, and if work is in progress when we receive the report, the council will respond immediately. If the works have already been completed, but within five working days of receiving the report, the council will aim to visit the site within 2 working days. Older reports will be followed up where there is likely to be sufficient evidence to enable the council to take legal action. In all cases, the council will let you know what action it is taking as a result of your call. However, the council reserves the right not to investigate where a complainant is unwilling to give their name or where a long period of time has passed between the alleged offence taking place and the council being notified.

• Requests to Protect Important Trees. Upon receipt of a correctly completed tree preservation order request form, the council will make an initial assessment of the risk to the tree and its importance. Based on this assessment, we will aim to make a site visit within 5 working days for high risk situations and 15 working days for lower risk situations. In all cases, we will write to you to advise you of our decision within 20 working days. A tree preservation order request form may be downloaded from this website or will be sent to you on request.
• TPO request form

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Carrying out Work to Protected Trees

The council recognises that trees, even if they are protected, need management. However, you will normally need to get the council’s consent for this to ensure that the work is appropriate and will not cause unacceptable harm to the local environment. For advice on emergency situations, please see our leaflet Dead, Dying or Dangerous Trees. For all routine tree work, the following timescales will apply, which allows time for consultation and for a tree officer to visit the site:

• Trees subject to a preservation order. In most cases, we will inform you of our decision within 8 weeks of receiving a correctly completed application form. In some (exceptional) cases, your application may have to go to a committee for determination and may take an additional 4 weeks to determine. If the council needs additional information from you in order to support your application and this cannot be obtained within the 8-week period, the council will give you the option of agreeing to a longer timescale for determining your application rather than just refusing it due to the lack of information. You can download the application form here.

• Trees in conservation areas. The procedures for trees within conservation areas are simpler than those relating to tree preservation orders and we will inform you of our decision within 6 weeks. You can download the application form here.

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Emergency Work to Privately-Owned Trees

The council has discretionary powers to deal with privately-owned trees that are a public danger. These powers apply if the owner fails to deal with the matter or the owner cannot be traced. The council can either order the owner to make the tree safe or undertake the work itself and charge the owner.

• The council will respond to a request to deal with a potentially dangerous private tree within 5 working days. In emergency situations, the council will aim to attend within 1 working day.

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Work to Council-Owned Trees

Our target, in normal weather conditions, is for 90% of the following actions to be undertaken within the stated timescales. During, or immediately after, gale force winds or other exceptional conditions such as very heavy snowfall, it is unlikely that we will be able to meet these targets and the emergency situations, where there is a risk to life and / or property, will take priority.

• We will have contractors on site within 1 hour in emergency situations eg responding to a fallen tree on the highway
• We will attend to a hanging branch or fallen tree in a high risk area within 1 working day
• We will attend to a fallen tree or large branch within a private garden within 1 working day
• We will carry out a site visit to respond to calls regarding low branches over a footway or road or obstructing a sight line within 14 days
• We will carry out an inspection of obscured street lamps or trees touching a house within 28 days of receiving the call.

Shading

In cases of extreme shading from a tree on council land, an application can be made for the tree to be assessed in accordance with the council’s shade policy. This seeks to weigh the benefits provided by trees for the local community against the problems caused to individuals and will involve a technical assessment of the degree of shading, and assessment of the amenity value of the tree, consultation with neighbours and, in certain cases, consideration by a panel of councillors. In some cases, an application may take up to 12 months to determine.

For an application form, please contact us using the form below

Inform us about council owned trees

The council is currently unable to take remedial action for shading caused by a tree that is the responsibility of Hampshire County Council (ie highway trees).

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General Enquiries Relating to Trees

We will aim to respond to general tree enquiries within the following timescales:

• Telephone message, 1 working day.
• Email, 5 working days.
• Letter, 10 working days.

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Helping Us to Help You

If you are happy with our services, please tell us so that we can identify the aspects of our service that matter to you. If you are unhappy with any aspect of our service, please let us know how we can improve it. Contact Us

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