Tree work beside or over a UK road: highway licences, notices and street works
What the Highways Act 1980 says about trees that overhang or endanger a road, about blocking the highway and about leaving materials in the street, and what three councils in England say about licences for tree works on the highway.
Checked against the sources at the bottom of this page on October 9, 2026. Rules, fees and pay change: the source has the last word.
This page reports what the official source says. It is not legal advice: ask the office named here. The Act sections below extend to England and Wales. The three council pages are English and show how those councils word their own licences; other councils word theirs differently. Tree preservation orders and felling licences are on the council tree rules page, and the signing and guarding of roadside work is in the roadside tree work guide.
Three sections of the Highways Act 1980
| Section | What it says |
|---|---|
| 154(1) | Where a hedge, tree or shrub overhangs a highway, road or footpath open to the public so as to endanger or obstruct vehicles or pedestrians, block drivers' view or the light from a public lamp, or endanger horse-riders, a competent authority may serve notice on the owner or the occupier of the land. The notice requires the vegetation to be lopped or cut within 14 days from service so as to remove the cause. The section says "hedge, tree or shrub" includes vegetation of any description. |
| 154(2) | Where a hedge, tree or shrub is dead, diseased, damaged or insecurely rooted and is likely to cause danger by falling on the highway, road or footpath, the authority may serve notice requiring it to be cut or felled within 14 days of service. |
| 154(3) and (4) | A person aggrieved by a requirement may appeal to a magistrates' court. If the notice is not met in the period, the authority that served it may do the work and recover its reasonable expenses from the person in default. |
| 137 | A person who, without lawful authority or excuse, wilfully obstructs the free passage along a highway is guilty of an offence and liable to imprisonment for up to 51 weeks, a fine or both. Subsection (1B) says it does not matter whether free passage was already temporarily restricted or prohibited. |
| 171 | The section lets a person, with the consent of the highway authority, temporarily deposit building materials, rubbish or other things in a street that is a highway maintainable at public expense, or make a temporary excavation. The authority may attach conditions, and a person refused or given conditions may appeal to a magistrates' court. The section also requires a person who places things in the street to have the obstruction fenced and lit in the dark, and not to leave it longer than necessary. The section sets a fine of up to £10 for each day of a contravention. |
The competent authorities named in section 154(1) depend on the road: for a road run by a local highway authority, that authority and, in a non-metropolitan district, the district council; for a road or footpath that is not a highway, the local authority for the area.
What three councils say about licences
| Council | What its page says |
|---|---|
| Bracknell Forest | A licence page headed occupy the highway for tree works. The page gives a fee of £321 plus an £80 inspection fee, and names Highways Act 1980 section 171 as the relevant law. |
| Cornwall | A licence to work within highway limits, needed when no excavation is involved. Tree works are one of the listed works, alongside deposits of materials, scissor lifts, cherry pickers and traffic management. The list is not definitive, the page says. The works must be covered by public liability insurance with minimum cover of £5 million. The page gives a lead time of 4 weeks, rising to 3 months when a temporary traffic regulation order such as a road closure is needed, and a fee of £114 for each calendar month. It says fees are reviewed each year and that traffic management must be set up and controlled by suitably qualified people. |
| Devon | A page for owners of trees next to the public highway, based on the county's survey of roadside trees. It says trees marked X in the survey are recommended for felling within 6 months and trees marked O for other work, that the survey covers trees of 18 cm diameter and above, and that the contractor needs agreement from the county on timing and traffic management. It says the trees the county identified as dangerous are exempt from a felling licence under the Forestry Act 1967, but other trees may need one for volumes over 2 cubic metres in a calendar quarter. The Forestry Commission's own page words the limit differently, as 5 cubic metres felled in a quarter of which up to 2 can be sold, as set out on the ancient woodland and coppice page. |
The street works code
GOV.UK publishes the Department for Transport's code of practice Safety at street works and road works (2013 edition, 108 pages). It describes it as a code to help utility companies and highway authorities carry out the signing, lighting and guarding of street works and road works. It applies on highways and roads except all motorways and dual carriageways with a speed limit of 50 mph or more. The code is written for street works and road works, and the page does not say whether a given tree job is covered by it.
Contains public sector information from GOV.UK and legislation.gov.uk, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Sources
- legislation.gov.uk, Highways Act 1980 section 154, read October 9, 2026
- legislation.gov.uk, Highways Act 1980 section 137, read October 9, 2026
- legislation.gov.uk, Highways Act 1980 section 171, read October 9, 2026
- Bracknell Forest Council, occupy the highway for tree works, read October 9, 2026
- Cornwall Council, licence to work within highway limits, read October 9, 2026
- Devon County Council, owners of trees adjacent to the public highway, read October 9, 2026
- GOV.UK, Safety at street works and road works, read October 9, 2026
- Forestry Commission on GOV.UK, Tree felling licence: when you need to apply, read October 9, 2026