If there's a tree in your Nottingham garden or on a site you manage that you want pruned, reduced or taken down, the first question worth answering before anyone picks up a saw is whether it's protected. Tree Preservation Orders (TPO) in Nottingham cover several hundred individual trees, groups and woodlands within just a couple of miles of the city centre, and doing unauthorised work on one is a criminal offence that can carry an unlimited fine. We deal with this side of the job as often as the climbing and grinding side of it: checking a tree's TPO status with the relevant council, putting together the application or notice, then carrying out the approved work once consent comes through.

Most people who contact us about a TPO aren't trying to get around the rules, they just don't know which council to ask or what the application needs to contain. That's the gap we fill. George handles this personally on most jobs, from the first phone call through to checking the finished site, so you're not passed between an office team and a separate crew who've never seen the tree.

• Checking whether a tree is covered by a Tree Preservation Order or sits inside a conservation area before any cutting starts, using the council's tree map or a written enquiry where the map isn't conclusive
• Preparing and submitting either a Section 211 notice (for trees in a conservation area that aren't individually TPO'd) or a full TPO works application, with photographs and a written case for the work
• Writing the method statement councils expect: species, trunk diameter, condition, the reason for the work, and how it'll actually be carried out (crown reduction percentage, sections to be removed, felling method)
• Liaising with the council's tree officer if they want to inspect the tree themselves before deciding, or come back with follow-up questions on the application
• Carrying out the approved pruning, crown reduction, deadwooding or felling once consent is granted or the six-week conservation area notice period has passed, following any conditions the council attaches
• Advising on replacement planting where felling consent is conditional on it, including the species and stock size most Nottingham councils will accept as a like-for-like replacement
• Grinding the stump once a protected tree has been legally felled - after checking the consent doesn't specify leaving the stump to encourage regrowth or coppicing instead of full removal, which some councils ask for on certain species

• The council's decision timeline isn't ours to control - a TPO works application legally allows up to eight weeks for a decision, longer if a site visit or committee referral is needed, and we can't accelerate that
• We don't issue or hold formal TPO documents ourselves - if you want a copy of the original Order posted or emailed to you rather than just a status check, that's a separate request direct to the council and some authorities charge an admin fee for it
• We're not planning consultants for a formal appeal or legal challenge to a refused application - a contested TPO decision usually needs a solicitor or chartered arboricultural consultant involved alongside us
• If a protected tree has already been cut without consent before you contact us, we can advise on the replacement planting a council is likely to require, but we can't undo an enforcement notice that's already been issued
• Emergency work on a dangerous protected tree under the statutory exemption still needs justifying afterwards with photographs and, in most cases, written notice to the council within five days - we manage that paperwork, but the judgement that the tree was genuinely an immediate danger is a legal one you're making, not us

1. Initial call -- Tell us where the tree is, what you want doing, and whether you already know it's protected. If you don't know, that's the normal starting point, not a problem.
2. TPO status check and site visit -- We check the council's tree map or submit a written enquiry to confirm protected status, then visit to measure the tree, assess its condition, and photograph it for the application.
3. Application or notice submitted -- We draft the TPO works application or Section 211 conservation area notice, write the supporting justification, and submit it through the relevant council's planning portal.
4. Liaison during the decision period -- If the council's tree officer wants to inspect the tree in person or has follow-up questions, we deal with that directly so you're not fielding calls from a department you've never spoken to before.
5. Approved work carried out -- Once consent is granted, or the six-week notice period passes without objection, we carry out the pruning, reduction or felling to NPTC-certified standard, sticking to any conditions attached - retained deadwood, timing restrictions around bird nesting season, or a capped reduction percentage.
6. Completion, stump grinding and sign-off -- Where felling included the stump and there's no regrowth condition attached, we grind it out and clear the site. Any required replacement planting goes in, and George does a final check before we call the job done.

A TPO or Section 211 job goes wrong less often because of poor tree work and more often because someone applied to, or waited to hear back from, the wrong authority - within a few miles of Nottingham there are eight separate planning registers, and a tree fifty yards over a boundary can sit with a different council altogether. Because we check the map, and put a written enquiry to the specific authority when it isn't conclusive, applications go to the right desk the first time instead of bouncing back weeks later with a rejection that has nothing to do with the tree itself. That same attention carries into the work once consent is granted: we're NPTC-certified for aerial tree work, chainsaw operation and rigging, and covered by £5,000,000 public liability insurance, so what gets carried out matches a standard the tree officer recognises, including conditions that are easy to lose if the person who applied never speaks to the person on the chainsaw - a stump a council wants left for regrowth, say, rather than ground straight out. George is on every job from the first call to the final site check, which is partly a habit from how this business grew: taking on the bit other firms would rather hand off elsewhere, then keeping the whole job, paperwork included, with one team rather than splitting it between people who've never compared notes. As he puts it, "we built this business on trust and personal service" - on a TPO job that means one person who knows the tree, the council file, and which register it belongs to.

We're based in Long Eaton and work TPO applications and the tree work that follows across Nottingham and the surrounding districts. Nottingham city itself has several conservation areas with a dense concentration of protected trees, The Park Estate being the clearest example - mature specimens along its private roads are almost all individually TPO'd or covered by the area's blanket protection, so pruning even a low branch there usually needs a notice first. Because our coverage spans several different planning authorities rather than one, the council you actually deal with depends on where the tree is: West Bridgford, Ruddington, Edwalton, Gamston and Bingham fall under Rushcliffe; Beeston, Bramcote, Attenborough and Wollaton (where boundary trees near Wollaton Park's deer park wall are frequently protected) sit with Broxtowe; Arnold, Woodthorpe, Carlton and Mapperley are Gedling's; Hucknall is Ashfield; Ravenshead and Southwell, whose conservation area around the Minster carries a good number of Orders on mature trees, fall under Newark and Sherwood; and Long Eaton itself is Erewash, over the border in Derbyshire, with Derby city and Mansfield having their own separate registers again. Each authority keeps its own TPO map and processes applications on its own timeline, which is exactly the kind of detail that trips people up when a property sits near a district boundary - worth flagging when you get in touch so we check the right register from the start.

A protected tree cut without consent can't be un-cut, and the fine for getting it wrong far outweighs the cost of checking first. If there's a tree on your Nottingham property you're thinking about pruning, reducing or removing, get in touch and we'll check its status, handle the application, and carry out the approved work once it's through - stump included, all from the same team.

Stump Grinding and Stump Removal Services
Call 0115-647-2443