How do I find out if my tree has a TPO?

Search your council's online tree register, or ring the planning team with your address. Middlesbrough, Stockton, Redcar & Cleveland and Hartlepool all publish their protected trees. The check is free and takes minutes.

Can I prune a protected tree, or only remove it?

Both need consent. Pruning a TPO tree without written approval is the same offence as felling it. The good news: well-argued pruning applications are routinely approved, and councils would rather see a protected tree properly maintained than removed.

My tree is dead and protected. Can I just take it down?

You can, but document it first: photographs of the whole tree and the dead wood, dated, before any cutting. Give the council five days' written notice where you can. If the tree was not actually dead, the unlimited fine applies, so the evidence is everything.

Who gets fined, me or the tree surgeon?

Potentially both. The owner and the contractor can each be prosecuted, and neither can claim ignorance of the order. This is why the register check happens before any legitimate quote.

Does a conservation area stop me removing a small tree?

Only trees over 75mm trunk diameter at 1.5m need the six-week notice. Smaller trees, and fruit trees in some cases, are exempt, but check before assuming, because the measurement rule catches more trees than people expect.

TPOs and conservation areas on Teesside: what you can and cannot cut

If your tree carries a Tree Preservation Order (TPO), any work needs written consent from your council first, typically decided within eight weeks. In a conservation area, you must give six weeks' written notice before work on any tree over 75mm diameter. Cutting a protected tree without consent is a criminal offence with unlimited fines, plus a likely order to replant. Checking your tree's status is free on each Teesside council's website.

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Last updated: August 2026, processes checked against the four Teesside borough councils.

What a Tree Preservation Order actually does

A TPO is a legal order made by the local planning authority protecting a specific tree, a group of trees or a whole area of woodland. Once a tree is protected, you need the council's written consent before cutting it down, topping it, lopping it, uprooting it or wilfully damaging it, and that includes pruning. Consent is free to apply for and is decided on arboricultural merit: a sound, well-argued application for a crown reduction on a healthy protected tree is routinely approved. What is never approved is removal for convenience alone, blocked light, leaf fall or TV signal are not valid grounds on their own.

Conditions are normal: consent for a removal usually comes with a replacement planting condition, a new tree of a stated species, in a stated position, within a stated period.

Conservation areas: the rule everyone forgets

Even without a TPO, living in a conservation area brings its own tree rule. Before any work on a tree with a trunk over 75mm diameter (measured at 1.5m height), you must give the council six weeks' written notice of what you intend to do. The council then has those six weeks to either let it proceed or slap a TPO on the tree. No response within six weeks means you may proceed with the work described, within two years.

Teesside has more of these areas than people assume: Linthorpe and Grove Hill in Middlesbrough, Norton Green and Yarm in Stockton, Saltburn and Guisborough's cores in Redcar & Cleveland, and the Headland in Hartlepool, among others. Whole streets of mature garden trees fall under the notice rule.

How to check your tree, council by council

All four Teesside councils publish their protected trees:

Middlesbrough Council: online TPO register and conservation area maps on the planning pages.
Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council: searchable tree register covering Stockton, Billingham, Thornaby, Yarm and Ingleby Barwick.
Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council: TPO register plus conservation area appraisals; coastal wards have several orders on wind-sculpted groups.
Hartlepool Borough Council: register and maps on the council site, with the Headland conservation area the busiest for notices.

The check takes minutes and costs nothing. Any reputable arborist does it as part of the quote visit, and will handle the application or notice on your behalf, typically for a small admin fee or included in the job price.

The exemptions that genuinely apply

You may work on a protected tree without consent only where the tree is dead or presents an immediate risk of serious harm. Both come with homework: for a dangerous tree you should still give the council five days' written notice where practicable, and the burden of proof is on you. Photograph everything before cutting, keep the evidence, and expect the council to ask. "It looked dead" is not a defence that survives a healthy set of growth rings in court. Nesting birds are a separate layer: an active nest pauses any work regardless of permission status, under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

What happens if you get it wrong

Cutting a protected tree without consent is a criminal offence. Fines are unlimited in the Crown Court, and magistrates regularly issue fines in the tens of thousands where a mature tree was removed to open a view or clear a development plot. Add the replacement order and the legal costs, and the "cheapest" unpermitted removal becomes the most expensive tree work you will ever commission. The council can also pursue a neighbour, a buyer or the contractor, ignorance of the order is no defence for anyone involved.

The practical route

Check the register, or ask for the check at quote stage. If consent or notice is needed, build the timeline into your plans: eight weeks for a TPO application, six for a conservation area notice. Work on unprotected trees in your own garden needs nothing at all, which on Teesside is still the majority of domestic jobs.