Planning permission advice; garage and tree with TPO

Bartoni79

Hi,

I’m thinking of building a double garage in our front garden (subject to planning permission). However, there is a tree on the pavement outside our house which has a TPO- about 3 meters from the closest wall of the garage. Based on the cracks in our drive, I deduce that there would be roots under where I’d want the footprint of the garage.I’m guessing this will be an issue with the planners. Can anyone offer a way to get approval?

I’m assuming this will be an issue to the planners and I’ll need a tree expert. Does anybody know of one in the Windsor and Maidenhead area?

Many thanks for any comments

bbat

A tree surveyor can help you could have a search for tree surveys/arborist/arboricultural surveyors locally. Its worth nothing thay W&M offer a service for £90 to provide advice, one of those bits of advice being whether application (to work on tree..which includes roots) is likely to be successful  https://www.rbwm.gov.uk/home/planning/tree-management/pre-application-advice-work-protected-trees

TELLIT01

I would hate to see a tree destroyed but if it is causing damage to property mayby your first point of contact should be those responsible for TPOs at the council.

Section62

TELLIT01 said:

I would hate to see a tree destroyed but if it is causing damage to property mayby your first point of contact should be those responsible for TPOs at the council.

The drive issue could be addressed by using a more flexible construction.  The garage hasn't been built yet, so can be designed to 'live' with the tree nearby.  There's no need for a valuable tree to be destroyed in either case.

OP, you might be better off getting hold of the council's arboriculturist (check some recent planning applications as these often have names/contact details of the right people) and ask them for advice on the impact the tree is having on your property, and how you could do your building project without affecting the tree.  If you have them on board from the start they are less likely to have cause to object when you seek planning consent.

Bartoni79

Great advice. Thanks. I wasn’t planning on trying to get the tree destroyed; more trying to find a way of having a garage and driveway put down on the roots of the existing tree. 
i wasn’t aware you could get flexible driveways. Are they the composite drives?

Section62

Bartoni79 said:

Great advice. Thanks. I wasn’t planning on trying to get the tree destroyed; more trying to find a way of having a garage and driveway put down on the roots of the existing tree. 
i wasn’t aware you could get flexible driveways. Are they the composite drives?

You'll need to get advice appropriate to your circumstances, but examples of the 'flexible' approach could be replacing concrete with tarmac, or replacing tarmac with gravel.  It really depends how close the roots are to the surface amongst other factors.

The council's trees officer might also ask you to use a permeable surface which allows water to percolate down into the root zone.

FreeBear

Bartoni79 said: I wasn’t aware you could get flexible driveways. Are they the composite drives?

Block paving has a degree of flexibility as well as being permeable to allow surface water to drain away between the joints - Good for the tree and the local drainage system. Although some care is needed when preparing the sub-base.

Gravel (with retaining grids) is another option, but the stones tend to spread and get in places you don't want..

Large slabs of concrete or tarmac is best avoided. You'd need planning permission before you start, and it won't do the tree any favours. In addition, the tree roots will cause the concrete/tarmac to lift & crack eventually.

TELLIT01

Whether or not flexible paving of some sort would address a problem with tree roots depends on how far the roots are below the surface.  There are footpaths in our local town where the roots of established trees are now above the level of the pavement and the path looks like a mini map of the Himalayas.  Not necessarily an issue for pedestrians with good sight, but definitely one for visually impaired.

I'm not advocating chopping the tree down, but there are instances where that is the only realistic option.

Bartoni79

The tree has a TPO though and sits outside our property boundary - on the pavement. 

The roots are definitely near the surface as I can see how they’ve caused the old tarmac to ripple up. I’m assuming councils won’t take a tree down for that reason?

theoretica

How big is the tree?  The rule of thumb starting point for tree protection is a circle with radius 12 times the tree's trunk diameter- at 1.5m up.  So your 3m would be fine for quite a tiny tree -  10 inches or less - but well within the radius for a large tree.

Bartoni79

The tree is probably 15+ metres high.