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Tree rules in Kingston upon Thames: preservation orders and conservation areas

What the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames pages say about protected trees, what needs no permission, the 75 millimetre conservation area size, the street tree felling consultation duty and how it inspects its own trees.

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 four Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames tree pages as read on October 8, 2026: protected trees, trees on private property, the duty to consult on street tree felling, and planned tree works. 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 Kingston's pages add. For another London borough with a different page layout, see the Southwark tree rules page.

What the protected trees page says

Kingston's page says trees can be protected under a tree preservation order (TPO) or by standing in a conservation area, and that work on a protected tree without the council's permission is a criminal offence. It lists cutting down, topping, lopping, uprooting and wilful damage or destruction, and it gives topping as the removal of large parts of the crown and lopping as the removal of large side branches. It says no permission is needed to remove deadwood from a protected tree. A TPO can apply to a single tree, a group, an area or a woodland, and for both TPOs and conservation areas, protected trees may include fruit trees and trees within a hedgerow. A hedge in its own right is not protected, and the page says conservation area consent is not required for work to a hedge. It names laurel, rhododendron, palm, elderberry, wisteria and buddleia as plants that cannot be protected and should not be put in applications.

For a conservation area the page says a tree is protected when it measures 75 millimetres in diameter at 1.5 metres above ground level, and that any tree of that size or larger is protected. It also says protection gives the council power to control the works through the application process, while the legal responsibility for the tree stays with the owner, who keeps the duty to maintain it for health and safety at their own cost. The page says the council cannot make an owner carry out work because a tree is protected.

Trees on private property

The private property page says the council does not get involved in disputes about a neighbour's overhanging tree. It restates the common law right to cut overhanging branches back to the boundary where the tree is not protected, and says a registered tree surgeon is recommended. For a tree in a conservation area without a TPO, the page says an application is made through the planning portal for surgery or removal of a tree with a trunk over 75 mm at 1.5 metres, that officers visit after receiving the written notice, and that if no TPO is made and the council gives no decision within six weeks, the intended works can be carried out.

Street trees

The duty page says Section 115 of the Environment Act 2021 became a statutory duty for all local authorities in England on November 30, 2023, requiring consultation with residents before felling street trees where no exemption applies. The exemptions it lists are trees that are dead or subject to a Plant Health Act 1967 notice, trees removed to implement a valid planning consent, trees that are dangerous or likely to become dangerous before the next scheduled inspection, and trees removed so that a statutory undertaker can do emergency operational work. The page says consultation results stay applicable for 2 years, that a response must be published at least 28 days before felling, and that after 2 years a new consultation is needed.

The planned works page says the council runs a yearly cycle of health and safety inspections as part of cyclical tree maintenance, using Visual Tree Assessment, which it describes as a standard approach to tree risk assessment. It says felling and stump removal of medium and large trees is normally done in 2 stages because of the differing equipment, and it lists works by location, ward, species and details, for example felling a dead cherry and grinding the stump to 30 cm.

Sources