Tree rules in Newham: preservation orders and conservation areas
What the London Borough of Newham's own pages say about its preservation orders, the 7.5cm stem and 1.5 metre height test for conservation area trees, how a paper submission must be sent, and what its published list of protected addresses contains.
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 two Newham Council pages and the council's published list of tree preservation orders, 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 Newham's pages add.
Tree preservation orders
Newham's tree preservation page says orders protect single trees, groups or areas of woodland, and that cutting down, topping, lopping, uprooting or deliberately damaging or destroying such a tree without permission is an offence. It says the borough has over 400 trees with orders and links a spreadsheet. It states a fine of £20,000 for destroying a tree with an order, and up to £2,500 for working on one without permission and damaging it without destroying it. The page also says that trees owned by the council or growing on its land are protected: the council must agree any work first, and if it agrees, one of its tree-maintenance contractors must do it. For work on a council tree or general advice, it gives the arboricultural inspector's phone line, open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, which is also the line to report damage to street trees.
Conservation areas
This is the part particular to this borough. Both the tree preservation page and the page on trees in conservation areas say an application goes in at least six weeks before the work so that the council has the chance to make an order if necessary. They give a test for which trees count: all trees in a conservation area are protected if they have a stem of more than 7.5cm wide and stand more than 1.5 metres high. The conservation areas page lists the areas with their maps and appraisals, including Durham Road, East Ham, Forest Gate Town Centre, Romford Road, Stratford St John's, Sugar House Lane, University and Woodgrange Estate, and says the boundary for Three Mills is held by another body, the London Legacy Development Corporation.
Applying
The page says work on a tree with an order, or in a conservation area, needs permission, applied for online through the Planning Portal with an account, or on a downloadable form sent to the planning submissions team at the Newham Dockside address. A paper submission also needs an electronic copy, on a CD or by email, with files in PDF format with the measuring tool switched on, each no bigger than 10MB, and large documents split into separate files.
The published list
The spreadsheet behind the tree preservation page has four columns: street and number, a first and second address line, and the order file number. When read, it held 465 address rows carrying 240 different file numbers, grouped by street, and some rows are junctions or whole streets rather than single numbers. The file's own properties show it was last saved on June 14, 2018, while the page does not give a date for the list.