Tree rules in Brent: preservation orders and conservation areas
What the London Borough of Brent's own tree page and Tree Management Policy say about its protected trees map, fines, the six weeks' notice, the 10 working day notice before it fells a council tree, and how it deals with crossovers and insurance claims.
Checked against the sources at the bottom of this page on October 8, 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. It describes Brent Council's tree page, its Tree Management Policy dated December 2017 and the application guidance notes the council hosts, as read on October 8, 2026. The national rules, including the time limits in the England regulations, are on the guide to checking tree rules with UK councils. This page covers only what Brent's documents add.
Protected trees
Brent's tree page says many trees are protected, either by a tree preservation order (TPO) or because they stand in a conservation area, and that carrying out or permitting work without prior consent is a criminal offence. It states fines of up to £20,000 for destroying or cutting down a protected tree and up to £2,500 for pruning one without written consent. It points to an interactive map of the trees under a TPO and says a tree in a conservation area with a stem or trunk diameter greater than 75 mm at 1.5 metres needs the council's permission before any work. Applications go through the national planning portal, and the page says that, unlike some other planning permission, a retrospective application cannot be made. Six weeks' written notice is stated for work to conservation area trees. Questions about trees in private gardens, TPOs and conservation areas go to the Planning Service.
The guidance notes hosted by the council are the national paper form help text. They say notice is needed for conservation area trees with a trunk of more than 75 mm at 1.5 m, or more than 100 mm when the work is thinning to help other trees, that reasons must be given for work to a TPO tree, and that consent to remove a TPO tree usually carries a condition to plant a replacement.
Council trees
The page says council trees are inspected regularly and that major works using climbing equipment follow cycles that "vary from two years upwards", depending on tree type and distance from houses, with signage on the tree. A fallen tree is reported by phone and other street tree problems online. Brent also runs a scheme that lets a resident pay for a tree to be planted on the public highway, with a cost the page gives as £400 per tree. For estates, the page says the council maintains trees in communal areas and gives separate phone numbers for office hours and out of hours emergencies.
The Tree Management Policy sets out specific rules. It says trees are removed only for good arboricultural, environmental or risk reasons: to abate an actionable nuisance, to reduce the risk of building subsidence, to improve the tree stock or to improve safety. It says the council puts a notice on the tree at least 10 working days before the felling date, with exceptions for dangerous, dead and failed young trees. It aims to plant at least one new tree for every tree it removes, plants street trees between November and March, and inspects new trees in each of the two years after planting. The policy says challenges to planting go to the tree service in writing within 21 days.
Crossovers and insurance claims
For driveway crossovers, the policy gives a minimum distance of 1 metre between the edge of the crossover and the mid-point of a tree stem. It says crossovers are not normally allowed where they need a street tree cut or its roots cut, and that where removal is agreed the applicant pays for removal and for one or two replacement trees. For subsidence, it says the council's insurance team handles claims and that the burden of proof lies on the claimant to show the tree is the cause.