The Town and Country Planning (Trees) Regulations 1999

PART I GENERAL

Citation, commencement and interpretation

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Town and Country Planning (Trees) Regulations 1999 and shall come into force on 2nd August 1999.

(2) In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires—

“authority” means a local planning authority(1) making, or having functions under, an order;

“land affected by the order” includes any land adjoining the land on which the trees, groups of trees or woodlands to which the order relates are situated;

“order” means a tree preservation order;

“person interested”, in relation to land affected by an order, means every owner and occupier of the land and every other person whom the authority know to be entitled to fell any of the trees to which the order relates or to work by surface working any materials in, on or under the land;

and any reference in these Regulations to a numbered section is a reference to the section so numbered in the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.

(1)

See, as to Greater London and metropolitan areas, section 1(2) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990; as to non-metropolitan areas, section 1(1) of, and paragraph 13(1) of Schedule 1 to, that Act; as to National Parks, section 4A of that Act (which was inserted by section 67 of the Environment Act 1995 (c. 25)), S.I. 1995/2803 and 1996/1243 (to which there are amendments not relevant to these Regulations) and, as to the Broads, section 5 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.

(2)

Under section 199(1), tree preservation orders generally do not take effect until confirmed, but a direction may be given under section 201 for an order to take provisional effect immediately.

(3)

Where the Order is to be made under the sections cited and section 300 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, all those provisions should be cited, as should the fact of the consent of the appropriate authority. As to the circumstances in which the consent of the Forestry Commission is required (and should be cited) see section 200(1) of that Act.

(4)

Subsection (6) of section 198 exempts from the application of tree preservation orders the cutting down, uprooting, topping or lopping of trees which are dying, dead or have become dangerous, or the undertaking of those acts in compliance with obligations imposed by or under an Act of Parliament or so far as may be necessary for the prevention or abatement of a nuisance. Subsection (7) of that section makes section 198 subject to section 39(2) of the Housing and Planning Act 1986 (c. 63) (saving for effect of section 2(4) of the Opencast Coal Act 1958 on land affected by a tree preservation order despite its repeal) and section 15 of the Forestry Act 1967 (c. 10) (licences under that Act to fell trees comprised in a tree preservation order).

(5)

See section 263 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.

(6)

S.I. 1995/418.

(7)

1991 c. 59, see section 72.

(8)

1989 c. 29.

(9)

1986 c. 31.

(10)

1984 c. 12.

(11)

Section 79 was amended by the Planning and Compensation Act 1991 (c. 34), section 18 and Schedule 7, paragraph 19.