← All guides · Conservation areas & planning · 30 September 2026

How to get permission to prune a tree in Shepherdswell conservation area, before and after

Lots of people search for a "conservation area permit" before touching a tree in Shepherdswell. The paperwork is actually a free notice to Dover District Council, and it is quicker to do than to worry about. Here is a typical job as it looks before the notice, as it looks after, and the eight steps in between.

Before

Picture a Shepherdswell lane-side boundary: an old mixed hedge that has not had a proper cut for years. Standing inside it are an ash with a trunk about 190mm across and a sycamore nearer 260mm, both with low limbs raking the roofs of passing vans and a scatter of dead wood in the crowns. The owner has picked a Saturday and found a contractor. Nobody has yet asked whether the plot lies inside the Shepherdswell conservation area, and no notice has gone to the council. If the trees were cut that weekend, it would be a criminal offence.

After

Seven weeks later, the notice has been emailed and dated, the council has stayed silent for the six weeks, and the lane side has been lifted to give clear headroom, with the dead wood out and the hedge cut to a tidy line beneath. The trees still look like trees, not stumps. The owner has a folder holding the notice, the photos and the council's reply, or a note that there was none. That is the whole difference: the same work, done lawfully and provably.

Notice, not permit

Section 211 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 requires you to give the council six weeks' written notice before certain work to a tree in a conservation area. The council cannot refuse a notice or attach conditions. It can make a Tree Preservation Order (TPO), which switches you to a formal consent application, or it can let the six weeks pass. For the rules explainer, see my guide to tree work in Shepherdswell conservation area. This page is the application walkthrough.

Which trees need notice?

Check these before you write anything. Species is irrelevant: ash, sycamore, hornbeam, field maple, beech, leylandii and other conifers, laurel that has grown into a tree, all count if they meet the size test.

• Size: a trunk over 75mm across, measured over the bark at 1.5m above the ground. At or under 75mm, no notice.
• Thinning exception: a trunk of 100mm or less can be cut down or uprooted without notice if the sole purpose is to improve the growth of other trees.
• Several stems: if a tree forks into more than one stem at 1.5m and any stem is over the limit, the small-tree exemption is lost. Check each stem.
• Shrub versus tree: the guidance says shrubs are not normally treated as trees, but trees growing in a hedge, or an old hedge that has become a line of tall trees, can be. A hedge clipped as a hedge is not a tree.
• Work that triggers notice: cutting down, uprooting, topping, lopping, and wilful damage or destruction. Trimming the hedge plants themselves normally does not.
• Exempt or different: dead trees and immediate danger (step 8), fruit trees grown commercially or pruned to good horticultural practice (Dover's own summary says "fruit trees cultivated for fruit production"), work that already has planning permission behind it, work you are legally obliged to do, and trees that already have a TPO.

Measuring. Wrap a tape round the trunk at 1.5m and divide by 3.14. In the example above, the sycamore reads 82cm round, which is about 26cm across, and the ash reads about 60cm round, roughly 19cm across. Both are well over the 75mm line, which is 23.6cm on the tape. The hazel and hawthorn stems around them, at 30 to 50mm, need nothing.

What happened in between: the eight steps

1. Check whether the address is in a conservation area

Dover District Council has an online conservation area map you search by postcode or street, and a page on conservation areas in the district. The council lists a designated area called Shepherdswell. It covers part of the village, not all of it, so do check the actual address. Neighbouring designations on Dover's list include Coldred - Church Area, Coldred - Village Green, Eythorne and Temple Ewell. The map is for viewing only, so email the council if you are near a boundary.

2. Check it is a tree, and check for a TPO

Run the size test. Then search the council's TPO map. If a Tree Preservation Order covers the tree, follow the formal application route instead. The Planning Portal says that where a tree is both in a conservation area and under a TPO, the TPO procedure applies. Dover also notes that trees on a recent development can be protected by planning conditions, which you can find via the council's planning history search.

3. Decide exactly what you want, and photograph it

At the "before" stage the owner wanted "the trees sorted". Turn that into a specification: which tree, which limbs, to what height, what dead wood. Photograph the whole of each tree and the parts you want to cut.

4. Gather what the council needs

By law the notice must describe the work, identify the trees clearly and carry a date. Planning Portal guidance adds a sketch map (not to scale, but showing trees, boundaries, buildings and the lane), the species and condition, and your interest in the land. A short reason for each operation helps the tree officer read it in one pass.

5. Send the notice

Dover's tree protection page says to email notice of conservation area works to tree.enquiries@dover.gov.uk. The Planning Portal also has an online notification of proposed works to trees in conservation areas. It costs nothing either way. Keep a dated copy.

6. The six weeks

The council has three choices: make a TPO, say the work may go ahead, or let the period run out. If nothing happens, you may go ahead once the six weeks end and you then have two years from the date of the notice to do the work. You can start sooner only with the council's written consent.

7. After the wait

Stick to the notice, because anything extra is not covered. Use an insured, trained tree contractor; BS 3998 is the British Standard for tree work. The Arboricultural Association's find a professional page lists registered firms. File the paperwork. If a tree is removed in a conservation area, the owner must plant a replacement of suitable size and species in the same place.

8. Dead and dangerous trees

For a dead tree, GOV.UK says to give the council five working days' written notice before the work, unless there is an immediate risk of serious harm. For a tree that presents an immediate risk of serious harm and needs urgent work, give written notice as soon as practicable after the work becomes necessary. Do only what removes the danger, photograph it first, and keep any tree specialist's written opinion.

What to write in the notice

Hedges on their own, and what skipping the notice costs

Clipping hedge plants is not tree work, so most hedge trimming needs no notice. Removing countryside hedgerows falls under the Hedgerows Regulations 1997, which are a separate regime; see the government guidance. Work to a protected tree without the notice is a criminal offence. The government guidance gives the penalty as a fine of up to £20,000 in the magistrates' court and an unlimited fine in the Crown Court, plus a possible duty to replant.

Sources: GOV.UK, Tree Preservation Orders and trees in conservation areas; Planning Portal, works to trees; Dover District Council, tree protection and conservation areas (checked 30 September 2026). The before and after scenario is a typical case, not a specific customer. General information, not legal advice.