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Complying with condition of Planning re: Fencing mature trees


MarkW1979

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I have obtained planning permission to build my 4 bed timber kit house (building warrant applied for but outstanding). One of the conditions is as follows:

 

"Prior to the start of works on site, fencing shall be erected to protect the mature trees at the north of the site from damage in accordance with BS:5837:2012 (trees in relation to design, demolition and construction, to the satisfaction of the planning authority."

 

I thought that this would just be a simple case of putting up some heras fencing next to the trees but my father-in-lay (a forester) tells me that I might have an issue.

 

Basically the proposed placement of the house is already quite close to the trees and by the time a scaffolding goes up any fence that I put up to protect the trees would be quite close to them (maybe 1.5-2 metres to the trunk). He says the fencing is there to protect the roots and it should be placed at 3 to 4m. Obviously placing the fence at that distance would mean that the scaffolding would interfered with. Anyone with any similar situations? Advice appreciated!

 

The pictures might help to understand. In the photo I have placed some wooden posts on the ground to mark where the rear of the house will come to.

 

Many thanks in advance.

 

Mark

Tree fencing.jpg

IMG_1483.jpg

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We had all this on both builds 

The problem was we couldn’t get past if we added Herras fencing style root protection 

We decided to rope it off on the first one 

It wasn’t practical to do that on this one so we agreed and did nothing 

Trees are pretty resilient 

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The size of the Root Protection Zone depends on the diameter of the tree at 1.5 m high, or canopy spread for mature trees, so maybe start by working that out (as per BS5837).  I'd suggest just doing the best you can under the circumstances, so it looks like you've made an effort.  The chances of anyone checking is pretty slim in my (limited) experience.  If you need to cross the RPZ with any heavy equipment, you can hire ground protection mats.

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So, the formula is radius = 12 x whatever diameter is at 1.5m  so that would make the distance (although I haven't actually measured) roughly 3.6m. It seems that if a fence was at this distance initially (before scaffold) it would prevent heavy machinery and digging and once the foundation were laid the fence could be moved to 1.5m to make way for the scaffold (after which there is no more digging anyway). 

 

 

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We a

7 hours ago, MarkW1979 said:

Prior to the start of works on site, fencing shall be erected to protect the mature trees at the north of the site from damage in accordance with BS:5837:2012 (trees in relation to design, demolition and construction, to the satisfaction of the planning authority."

 

 

Our PP had a condition requiring us to agree tree protection measures before work started. We just wrote to them stating we would erect barrier fencing according to BS blah blah. 

 

They agreed it but never came to check. We just put the barriers where we wanted them.

 

The main thing they want to stop is vehicles driving over the root zone. So if you can stop that with fencing in strategic places but allow your scaffolding you should be fine. So fence off the trees while digging foundation trenches then fence off the route vehicles would have to take to get to the trees while your scaffolding is up. 

Edited by Temp
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I went to a great deal of trouble to fence everything off, in the end no-one seemed to be that bothered. Whether its a case that they see your trying to do the right thing and playing the game. 

 

Our architect out together a statement (cut and paste from something he found on the internet) on what we going to be doing, to what BS standard, I cut some words out that were not practical and it went through fine.

 

Basically ours was 4" posted, wired, and orange mesh about a 1m high, with signs from Screwfix say keep out.

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2 hours ago, MarkW1979 said:

So, the formula is radius = 12 x whatever diameter is at 1.5m  so that would make the distance (although I haven't actually measured) roughly 3.6m. It seems that if a fence was at this distance initially (before scaffold) it would prevent heavy machinery and digging and once the foundation were laid the fence could be moved to 1.5m to make way for the scaffold (after which there is no more digging anyway). 

 

 

All the answers are telling you the same thing 

No one enforces this 

Our protection zone was under a 600 mil drive It’s obvious to planners that we would be digging this up 

But they are required to put this in 

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