Tree preservation order

A tree preservation order (TPO) is a part of town and country planning in the United Kingdom.

A TPO is made by a local planning authority (usually a local council) to protect specific trees or a particular area, group or woodland from deliberate damage and destruction if those trees are important for the amenity of the area.

TPOs make the felling, lopping, topping, uprooting or otherwise willful damaging of trees without the permission of the local planning authority a legal offence, although different TPOs have different degrees of protection.

They can be made very quickly and in practice it is normal for a council to make an emergency TPO in less than a day in cases of immediate danger to trees.

Current tree preservation orders in England and Wales are made under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and the Town and Country Planning (Tree Preservation) (England) Regulations 2012.

An example of a TPO: This line of trees on private land in Winchelsea Road, north London , was protected from imminent felling for development by action by the London Borough of Brent , after a local campaign by residents