Tree rules in Hackney: TPOs, conservation areas and applying for works

This page reports what the official source says. It is not legal advice: ask the office named here. It describes Hackney Council's trees page as read on October 9, 2026, with the Planning Portal and GOV.UK pages it links and regulation 13 of the Town and Country Planning (Tree Preservation) (England) Regulations 2012. 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 Hackney's page adds.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0 for the legislation.gov.uk text.

Tree preservation orders

Hackney's page says a tree preservation order is a legal order made by the council to protect trees that are important to the local environment. It lists what an order can cover: a single tree, a group of trees, an entire woodland, and hedgerows, but not shrubs, bushes or climbing plants. It says permission is needed before cutting down, uprooting, topping, lopping or damaging a protected tree, including its roots, and that approval from the local planning authority is needed before any pruning or other work on a tree with an order. Regulation 13 of the 2012 England regulations words the ban as cutting down, topping, lopping, uprooting, wilfully damaging or wilfully destroying a tree to which an order relates, except with the authority's written consent and, where consent carries conditions, in line with them.

Conservation areas

The page says trees in a conservation area are protected and that the council must be given 6 weeks' notice before pruning or other work. It lists two exemptions for smaller trees.

Tree	No notice needed when the stem width is under	Measured
Individual tree	7.5 cm	At 1.5 metres above the ground
Tree within a group	10 cm	At 1.5 metres above the ground

According to the Planning Portal, a section 211 notice is the way to give this notice. It says the notice is not an application for consent, so it cannot be refused or accepted with conditions, and that a tree that has an order and also stands in a conservation area follows the order procedure.

Applying and giving notice

Hackney says an application for a tree with an order, or a notice for a conservation area tree, goes through the Planning Portal. It also offers a downloadable application for tree works form that can be posted or handed in at the Hackney Service Centre, and a guide to preparing applications for tree works.

The 5 day notice for urgent work

The page says work on a protected tree that poses an urgent and serious safety risk needs a 5 day notice. It says that if the risk is immediate, the work can be done straight away, but the council must be told as soon as possible. It names two cases: cutting down a tree when the whole tree is an immediate hazard, and pruning part of a tree that presents an urgent safety risk. The notice goes by email and the page lists what it includes: details of the work and why it is needed, photographs of the dangerous condition, a map of the tree's location, a photograph of the tree in its original position, the approximate height in metres, and details of replacement trees for dead or imminently dangerous protected trees.

Penalties

For a protected tree damaged or destroyed without permission, Hackney says the owner or the person doing the work can be prosecuted, fined up to £20,000 and made to pay for a replacement tree.

Street trees

The page says the council has planted 5,000 street trees under an urban tree planting programme, and that the programme aims to raise on-street canopy cover from 20 percent to 30 percent. Its tree map shows more than 45,000 council maintained trees with species, common name and age. A tree management plan covers planting and care. Newly planted trees get 18 months of care and watering, then enter a young tree maintenance programme, and later fall under 3-yearly ward inspections. The page says council trees are watered weekly in warm weather and that reports about trees go to different teams depending on whether the tree is on a public highway, park or open space, a housing estate, a council house garden or private property.

It also describes common law on overhanging branches: it says a neighbour may cut back branches and roots that cross the property line, with a legal responsibility to use reasonable care, and it points to the Arboricultural Association's guide to trees and the law.