Tree rules in Croydon: preservation orders, conservation areas and fines

This page reports what the official source says. It is not legal advice: ask the office named here. It describes five Croydon Council tree pages as read on October 9, 2026: trees and hedges, tree preservation orders, trees in conservation areas, what the council does and does not do, and high hedges. 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 Croydon's pages add.

Tree preservation orders

Croydon's page says a tree preservation order is issued by the council to prevent visually important trees from being removed or pruned without formal permission. It says that generally the trees must be under threat or considered important, and that the council can protect single trees, groups, defined areas or woodlands. To find out whether a tree is covered, the page says to send the details of the tree to the council's development management team by email.

Permission to prune or fell a preserved tree is asked for on the application for tree works form, which the page recommends submitting online through the Planning Portal, with a paper form chooser there for printing. It states there is no application fee. It says permission is normally subject to conditions printed on the decision notice, and that a refusal can be appealed, with the appeal information included in the decision notice.

Fines and exemptions as the council words them

Situation	What the Croydon page says
Destroying or cutting down a protected tree without permission	A fine of up to £20,000 can be imposed, and the landowner will also be required to replace the tree.
Pruning a protected tree without permission	A fine of up to £2,500 can be imposed.
Destroying or cutting down a tree in a conservation area without consent	A fine of up to £20,000 can be imposed. Pruning one without consent carries a fine of up to £2,500.
A dead tree	No formal permission is needed for pruning or felling.
A dying tree	Formal consent is required.
A dangerous tree	Only the necessary urgent works can be done without consent.
Work to a dead or dangerous tree	Five days' notice must be given to the council.

Conservation areas

The conservation areas page says the council must be given six weeks' written notice before work to trees in a conservation area. It says the simplest way is to complete the application form for tree work. To find out whether a property is in a conservation area, it points to the development management team or to the council's conservation areas web page.

Trees the council looks after

On the page about what the council can and will do, Croydon says it maintains trees in parks, woodlands, cemeteries and open spaces through tree and grounds contractors, with a focus on clearing and re-cutting highway trees. It operates a 3 to 5 year pruning cycle: trees in the north wards are pruned on a 3 year cycle because of their greater indirect influence on nearby structures, and trees in the south wards on a 5 year cycle. Parks trees are inspected every 5 years. The page says dead, dangerous or fallen trees are reported through the council's Love Clean Streets app or website.

High hedges

On its high hedges page Croydon says the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 gives local authorities powers to enforce height restrictions on hedges, that involving the council should be a last resort, and that the council charges £600 for this service. It says the council can refuse to intervene if it thinks the complainant has not done everything reasonable to settle the dispute, and the page on what the council can and will do adds that it cannot get involved in other disputes between neighbours over trees and hedges.