Trees in a Conservation Area: How the Section 211 Notice Works in Winchester

Any tree in a conservation area with a stem diameter above 75mm, measured at 1.5m above ground level, is protected by default under section 211 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. Work on it requires six weeks' written notice to the local planning authority before it starts.

This protection is automatic. It applies without any order being made, without the owner being notified, and to every qualifying tree inside the boundary. Winchester has extensive conservation area coverage, including much of the city centre, St Cross and several residential streets, which places a large share of the district's garden trees inside the regime.

Section 211 protection is a notice, not an application

The distinction between the two regimes is the point most homeowners get wrong, and it changes what the council is able to do.

A Tree Preservation Order protects named trees. Work requires an application for consent, which the council decides. It can refuse, or grant consent with conditions attached.

A Section 211 notice is a notification of intent. The council cannot refuse it and cannot attach conditions. It has exactly three options during the six weeks: make a Tree Preservation Order on the tree, write back confirming it does not intend to, or let the period lapse in silence.

Silence is consent. Where the six weeks expire with no order made, the notified works may proceed, and may be carried out at any point within two years of the notice, which allows the work to be scheduled for the right season rather than rushed into the week the period ends.

The two regimes can overlap. A tree in a conservation area that already carries a Tree Preservation Order falls under the Order, and the notice route does not apply. Establishing whether a garden tree is covered by a Tree Preservation Order is therefore the first check, because it determines which of the two processes applies and whether the council holds a power of refusal at all.

The 75mm threshold and what falls outside it

Protection attaches by stem diameter, measured over the bark at 1.5m above ground level.

• Below 75mm diameter, outside the regime. No notice required.
• Below 100mm diameter, where the work is cutting down or uprooting for the sole purpose of improving the growth of other trees, outside the regime.
• Multi-stemmed trees, the exemption fails where any single stem exceeds the relevant threshold at 1.5m.

Three further exclusions apply in practice. Hedges are not trees for these purposes, so routine hedge cutting and reduction work inside a conservation area does not require a Section 211 notice, though individual trees growing within a hedge line still can. Fruit trees grown for fruit production in the course of a business are treated differently from amenity trees. Dead trees and trees presenting an immediate risk are handled through the separate route described below.

Measuring at the wrong height is a common error. A tree that appears slender at chest height may exceed 75mm at 1.5m on a flare, and the measurement is taken over the bark rather than beneath it.

Checking whether your tree is in a Winchester conservation area

Winchester City Council publishes protection status through its WCC Public View mapping service. Searching the property address and enabling the layers for individual TPO trees, group TPOs and conservation areas shows what applies.

The council states the mapping is indicative only and asks that status be confirmed with the tree team before any work is planned. The tree team can be reached on 01962 848 301 or at NaturalEnvironment@winchester.gov.uk. The council also states plainly that it cannot advise private owners on what work a tree needs, and refers owners to a qualified arborist or consultant for that.

One local complication is worth knowing before checking the wrong register. Part of Winchester district falls within the South Downs National Park, where the National Park Authority acts as the local planning authority rather than the city council. A property in the eastern and southern parts of the district may need to notify the Authority rather than Winchester City Council, and submitting to the wrong body does not start the clock.

Submitting the notice: what it needs and what it costs

No fee is charged. Winchester City Council confirms there is no charge for either Tree Preservation Order applications or conservation area notifications.

The notice does not have to take a prescribed form, and the council cannot insist on its own form, though the standard route is the Planning Portal's online submission. A notice that gets processed without a request for further information normally contains:

• The property address and the applicant's contact details.
• Each tree identified individually by species and position, with a sketch plan where more than one tree is involved.
• The specific work proposed on each tree, in standard arboricultural terms, crown reduction with a stated percentage, crown lift to a stated height, removal of specified deadwood, felling.
• The reason for the work.

Vague descriptions are the main cause of delay. "Cut back the trees at the rear" gives the tree officer nothing to assess and normally produces a request for clarification, which restarts the practical timeline. Decide the specification before submitting. Where a contractor handles the conservation area notification and TPO consent process on the owner's behalf, the specification is written in the terms the tree officer expects, which is usually what keeps a notice moving through in the six weeks rather than eight or nine.

What the council does during the six weeks

The tree officer inspects the site and assesses whether the tree makes a significant enough contribution to the character or appearance of the conservation area to justify a Tree Preservation Order.

Where the officer decides an Order is warranted, a provisional Order is served, and the work proposed in the notice cannot proceed. The Order then follows the council's own confirmation process, including delivery of the Order to the occupier and neighbouring land materially affected, a period for representations, and referral to Planning Committee where objections cannot be resolved.

Where no Order is made, work may proceed once the council confirms it has no objection or the six weeks expire.

Starting work inside the six-week period is an offence regardless of how reasonable the proposed work was.

Dead and dangerous trees: the five working day route

Trees that are dead, or that present a risk requiring urgent attention, sit outside the six-week notice requirement. The exemption is narrower than it is usually assumed to be.

The council must still be informed in writing at least five working days before the work is carried out. Only work necessary to remove the danger is exempt, felling an entire tree where removing one failing limb would have resolved the risk is not covered.

Where a tree presents an immediate risk of serious harm, work may proceed without advance notice, again limited to what is necessary to remove that immediate risk. Photographic evidence taken before the work, showing the defect that justified it, is the record that supports the decision afterwards. Trees brought down or destabilised in a storm fall into this category, and urgent tree work after storm damage is one of the few situations in which a protected tree can lawfully be touched the same day, but the written notification still follows, and the burden of proving the risk sits with the owner.

Claiming the exemption for a tree that was neither dead nor dangerous converts an exempt operation into an offence.

Penalties and the duty to replace

Winchester City Council states that carrying out work to a tree in a conservation area within the six-week period, without consent, can result in criminal prosecution and a fine of up to £20,000. The offence is one of strict liability in its essentials, it is committed by the work being done, and being unaware of the conservation area boundary is not a defence.

Liability attaches to more than the person holding the saw. A homeowner who instructs the work, and a contractor who carries it out, can both be prosecuted. This is why a competent contractor checks protection status before quoting, and why a contractor willing to start immediately on a tree in the historic core is creating an exposure for the property owner as much as for themselves.

A separate duty follows removal. Where a tree in a conservation area is removed, including where it was removed lawfully because it was dead or dangerous, the landowner carries a duty to plant a replacement tree of appropriate size and species in the same place. The council can enforce that duty.

Protection status is confirmed with the council's tree team before we issue a quote anywhere across Winchester and its surrounding villages, and the notice is submitted and tracked on the owner's behalf, because the six-week clock determines the start date on most city-centre gardens.