In message , Spider
writes
On 19/03/2011 16:54, kay wrote:
Does anyone have first-hand experience of gardening in a Conservation
Area?

I have been discussing with the Council tree person the impact of their
proposal to extend the Conservation Area to include our house and
garden.

Very briefly:

All trees with a trunk of 3 inches dia or more at about 5ft high are
covered, and for any work on them, I need to give six weeks notice, and
fill in a form with a plan showing the trees' location and full details
of the work I need to do.

This covers all work, including, eg annual pruning of fruit trees. He
has told me that picking of bay leaves for culinary purposes, and
picking holly for christmas decorations should, by law, be applied for
similarly but will be overlooked.

I will have to apply every single year to carry out annual pruning - I
cannot get an approval to annually prune.

There appears to be no way in which to get a particular tree exempted -
eg for them to decide that a leylandii doesn't add to the conservation
character of the area and therefore I may continue to cut it back to
keep it within bounds.

Since I have around 40 trees over the size limit, are close to reaching
it, this is going to cause me a considerable amount of paperwork, and,
more importantly, it will cause them a lot of paperwork (I think he was
very sensible to concede on bay leaves ;-) )

So - is this the attitude tree officers are taking elsewhere, or is my
particular tree officer not quite au fait with the legislation (my
father believes that there is something in the primary legislation
saying that it shouldn't override good husbandry, and so annual pruning
of fruit trees is allowed)?




Hi Kay,

We are in a conservation area, and it is a real pain :~(.

so are we, and I can't say it's been an issue.

Our case is slightly different to yours in that a separate body
controls the conservation area, so in some cases we would need
permission from the Council and the other Body. Fruit trees are
generally discounted but, (I think)that permission would nevertheless
be required if a fruit tree died and needed removing.

nope, dead trees of any sort aren't covered by the conservation area
requirements.

Not only do you then need the Body to give permission for the trees
removal, but you also have to pay them *and* they then tell you what
you're allowed to plant in its place!!! :~[.

I think maybe your problems come from this 'other body' - the LA can't
charge, and have no say over what you plant. Though of cours elike all
things, LA's approaches vary.

ISTM, talking to the tree surgeon we used last year, that what the LA
was really bothered about was tree's that are visible publicly, and
contribute to the visual amenity of an area. They don't seem so
interested in tree's hidden away at the back of a property. We had two
tree's felled, some serious cutting back of some other tree's and it
wasn't any issue at all with them.


I can assure you, it's not easy to live with ... or that is to say it's
not easy if you follow all the rules ;~}. We love trees and plant them
and do most of our own tree work, at least while we're still fit
enough. We do have to be a bit careful because, although we have mostly
gorgeous neighbours, there is someone who rats on others. To make
matters worse, our conservation rules apply to the whole property so
you can't put in new windows .. or build a wall .. or put your washing
out on the wrong day (yes, *really*!). I have come across a few
conservation areas like ours and they are not at all popular with the locals.


No, but for your general conservation area those things aren't an issue
--
Chris French