Cheshire Woodlands
A primarily rural county in North West England, Cheshire has a history of supporting agriculture and staging suitable environments to grow chemical industries. Despite a larger percentage of rural areas over urban areas, Cheshire county is classed as one of the least wooded counties in all of the UK and holds less than 5% of tree cover across its 2,343 km² land area.
The county of Cheshire is commonly split between the two areas of Cheshire West and Chester, and Cheshire East, with Halton and Warrington housing the remaining towns, cities and villages. The largest urban areas within Cheshire by population are Warrington, Chester, Crewe, Widnes, Runcorn, Ellesmere Port, Macclesfield and Northwich.
Even with a distinct lack of woodland across the county, Cheshire boasts of several popular wooded areas. For example, Delamere Forest covers 972 hectares, making it the largest patch of woodland in the county. A side effect from an area featuring only a limited number of trees is that the local authorities may put more restrictions in place with the intention of adding to the number of retained trees under their jurisdiction.
Developers staging a planning project in Cheshire could find this to be true, causing a potential stumbling block in their plans and the overall planning system. A tree survey, however, will contribute to meeting the strict arboricultural requirements of the local council and play a key role in gaining planning permission on the proposed development site.
Protections Over Trees
Efforts to protect trees in each section of the county are in place for Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester, Halton and Warrington. Applicable to all parts of England and referenced as methods of protecting trees from the perspective of every authority in Cheshire, the two main protections over trees are known as Tree Preservation Orders (TPOs) and conservation areas.
Both share similar rules, including that all listed trees are owned by the local council and they must be contacted for prior consent before any works that could cause indirect or direct damage or structural defects to trees under these protections are carried out. The main difference between a Tree Preservation Order (TPO) and a conservation area is that, while TPOs are applicable to individual trees, conservation areas cover certain zones and all trees within them.
Local Authorities in the Cheshire County
- Cheshire East Council
- Cheshire West and Chester Council
- Halton Borough Council
- Warrington Borough Council
British Standard Tree Survey and Assessment
Approaching a presence of trees on your site in any capacity will be significantly easier through the assistance of an arboriculturist. With their help, you can bypass any potential obstacles caused by TPOs or conservation areas and simultaneously find the best way to meet the individual requirements and find a reasonable and proportionate approach for trees obstructing your development plans. Our tree surveyors would often kick off the process with a BS5837 tree survey – a visual tree assessment used as an opportunity to inspect all trees on the site and develop steps forward that will allow the project to progress, even with trees present.
On the day of a BS5837 (2012) tree survey, a tree consultant will attend the site and brandish each tree with a grading based on physiological and structural condition, as well as the perceived value of tree assets. A mitigation hierarchy will be used to decide the fate of each tree, with retention acting as the priority outcome. In some circumstances, however, a tree may be situated within a key area of the development site or cause potential tree safety issues, and if this is the case, the arboriculturist will need to relocate it elsewhere on or off the site or – a last resort – destroy it and compensate with the planting of a new tree.
The tree surveyor will then assemble a tree report featuring further information about the general assessment process, a Tree Constraints Plan (TCP) drawing, findings from the arboricultural survey, measures for each tree on the site, and recommendations of further surveys that may be required. Based on the information within arboricultural survey reports, the planning officer from the local planning authority should hold everything they need to make a clear decision in regards to planning applications, and as is it will feature suitable solutions to any arboricultural issues, they should have no hesitation in granting a planning condition.
Trusted Experts in Tree Risk Assessments
Every tree surveyor in our arboricultural consultancy has the utterly essential level of training, licensing and qualifications – as well as the necessary cover such as professional indemnity and public liability insurance – to undertake arboricultural surveys for residential and commercial clients with a pragmatic approach. Not only do we assist with planning applications for planning conditions, but also ensure that trees remain healthy, working with an extensive range of individuals such as tree owners, tree managers and mortgage lenders to widen our variety of tree surveys, tree reports and other arboricultural services.
Alongside the preliminary Cheshire tree surveys for a potential risk assessment on design, demolition and construction work, our comprehensive range of tree surveys and reports extends to other stages and purposes. For instance, if you need a Tree Protection Plan (TPC), Arboricultural Impact Assessment (AIA) or Arboricultural Method Statement (AMS) for additional arboricultural information on the potential impact of your development project, we can provide tree surveys or supporting documentation such as Tree Protection Plans (TPCs) and work closely with you to produce any other information required to meet your needs.
Call Us Today for a Tailored Quote
Before you are able to develop on land where trees are present, you will need to reach out to an arboricultural consultancy for a tree survey. The accompanying tree reports will then provide the information the local council need to accept that all local planning authority requirements were satisfied and planning applications can be granted on the site. Booking a tree survey early will save complications further into the process and ensure that a desirable date has been chosen for the arboricultural consultant to attend the site and conduct the assessment.
Through speaking to our team over the phone via the number above or online using our quick quote form, we will be able to send you a free quote based on the specifications of your project and site. By giving us as much information required to outline woodland areas near to the site address of your development project as possible, we can guarantee an accurate quote and speed up the process of booking in a tree survey and visiting your site for an assessment. With the help of our team of licensed, qualified, skilful and capable arboriculturists, we can help you with a comprehensive report based on the necessary tree inspections to get through planning and move your project into the latter stages.