Tree preservation order

A tree preservation order (TPO) is a part of town and country planning in the United Kingdom. A TPO is made by a local planning authority (usually a local council) to protect specific trees or a particular area, group or woodland from deliberate damage and destruction if those trees are important for the amenity of the area. In Scotland TPOs can also be used to protect trees of historic or cultural significance. TPOs make the felling, lopping, topping, uprooting or otherwise willful damaging of trees without the permission of the local planning authority a legal offence, although different TPOs have different degrees of protection.

They can be made very quickly and in practice it is normal for a council to make an emergency TPO in less than a day in cases of immediate danger to trees.