Tree rules in Wandsworth: preservation orders and conservation areas
What the London Borough of Wandsworth's own pages say about how it makes and confirms tree preservation orders, which TPO requests it is unlikely to grant, its 2 and 3 year tree inspections and the way it pollards planes and limes.
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 three Wandsworth Borough Council pages as read on October 8, 2026: tree preservation orders, tree maintenance and reporting tree issues, and the tree policy. 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 Wandsworth's pages add, and the summary row for the borough on that guide is the shorter version.
Making and confirming an order
Wandsworth's TPO page says an order can cover anything from a single tree to woodland and that it is an offence to cut down, top, lop, uproot, wilfully damage or wilfully destroy a protected tree without permission. It offers a TPO and listed building map and a conservation areas view, and sends enquiries about conservation area works, TPO trees and street trees to the Trees team. When the council makes an order it writes to the owner and other interested parties with a copy of the order, and comments for or against are made within 28 days. The page says an order can take immediate effect and last six months or until confirmed, whichever comes first, that it can be modified when confirmed, for example by leaving out some trees, and that once confirmed it stays in force indefinitely. It also says that for trees on Crown Land the council must seek permission from the relevant authority before an order is made, and that a TPO on trees helped by a forestry grant needs the Forestry Commission's permission.
Requests for a new order
This is the part particular to this borough. The page says the council considers serving a TPO where there is a specific threat to trees that give significant public visual amenity, or where removal would harm the local and wider landscape, and that a full response comes within 20 working days. It lists the kinds of tree for which a request is unlikely to be granted: young or non-established trees, large trees too close to a building, dying, dead or dangerous trees, trees with no perceived visual amenity such as those in a back garden that cannot be seen from a public place, and trees not under a clear threat of removal or pruning. It says photographs taken from a public place help, and that in urgent cases it can make an emergency TPO and will consider verbal requests. For deciding applications it states a decision within 8 weeks, and for conservation areas it states notification 6 weeks before work. For a dead or dangerous TPO tree it states five working days' notice under the exemption.
Council trees
The maintenance page says street trees are inspected every 2 years and trees in parks or on housing estates every 3 years, with a work schedule built from the inspections. It lists work such as reshaping or reducing the crown, removing low branches over footways, roads or street lights, and clearing dead, split or hanging branches. It lists what the council is not responsible for: shade or loss of light, interference with television, satellite or private CCTV signals, contact with overhead cables, branches overhanging neighbouring property, droppings and squirrel access, trees perceived as too large, and seasonal leaf, flower, seed and fruit fall. It says London plane and lime trees are pollarded back to the previous pruning points, called knuckles, because the smaller wounds there are less open to disease, and that works follow British industry standards. The tree policy page links a tree policy and a Tree and Woodland Delivery Framework that sets out how planting suggestions are considered, and notes that the contact numbers in the policy document are no longer correct.