Tree Surveys for Planning Applications

A comprehensive understanding of legislation, policy & guidance from an expert team.

You have come to the right place for the advice you need to get your project moving. We have been instructed to carry out tree surveys for literally thousands of planning applications over the last 30+ years.

tree surveys for planning applications

The purpose of the BS5837 tree survey, and indeed the overriding aim of the local planning authority in requesting a tree survey for a planning application, is to determine whether a development will have an impact on important trees within the landscape. It is therefore critical that the right information is gathered accurately, and that the developer or applicant is made aware of any issues that may require alterations to be made to a layout.

From the time your arboriculturist sets foot on the potential development site they should not only be gathering the data required to satisfy the basic tree survey requirements, but they should also be looking for potential constraints to the development process that might impact on the planning outcome. Considerable time and money can be saved by providing advice on potential pitfalls at an early stage of the design process, thereby allowing constraints to be fully considered. In some cases, it may transpire that development footprints can be increased by looking strategically at the landscape and advising where additional units may be possible.

The basic tree survey is only part of the process, however, with an Arboricultural Impact Assessment usually required to support the planning application.

Legislation

There is a statutory duty under the Town & Country Planning Acts for local planning authorities to consider the preservation of trees when planning applications are made. It’s, therefore, no accident, nor is it simply a whim of the local council to ask for a tree survey to be submitted with a planning application, even if trees are not actually located on the site itself (they may be off-site but close enough to the boundary to potentially be affected by a development).