So, TPOs tricky subject again, what we need to understand if there’s a large tree in a driveway that has a TPO (Tree Preservation Order) on it, we need to understand what the TPO is about, how we act and behave around that tree will be included in our method statement. Quite often what it involves is an area to the side and the front and the back of that tree that you cannot dig. It’s called a no dig scheme, and you also cannot encroach within that boundary.

So quite often what we’ll do for instance if this tree here had a TPO on it, we would put Heras fencing all the way round and join it up so that no digger, no person, no machinery could get anywhere near that tree and damage the bark.

We would always involve running our method statement past a tree officer. It’s very dangerous to assume that we’re TPO experts, we’re not, what we’re saying is we work in conjunction with the tree officer, so we would have to satisfy them. In most cases, they would come up with a method statement and we would comply.

Now it’s not just the exterior and the bark of the tree that you’re trying to protect, it’s actually the root system. So this is why you need the tree officer’s experience, different trees, their roots dig at different depths. So how we dig, why we dig and and where we can dig all is determined by the tree officer and and put together with the TPO method statement.