Anyone know anything about planning law and TPO's?

[lurkingdad]

A quick summary of a very long story is that we have a planning application in that should have been decided by 11th June according to the council's rules.

Now I have just received notification through the door that the trees alongside our house are now under a tree protection order. In theory this should not impact the application as we already have permission for a single storey extension and are just trying to increase the height by 1.5m and need to trim a few low hanging branches. I have given them a tree surveyors report that states the trees can be trimmed without any harm coming to them. Does anyone know whether they have to consider my application based on the facts at the time the application was made or based on the facts now including the TPO?

I'm very frustrated as this saga has been ongoing for 18 months and I've spent £5k on planning applications etc and the council fight me every inch of the way as they insist our development will kill the trees despite a tree surveyor for the secretary of state saying that it won't. We are only trying to build a two storey extension over our drive at the side of the house!!

I couldn't tell you for sure without getting out my very large and boring planning guide file, but I'd say that the TPO would be taken into effect, otherwise, for example, someone could get permission to chop down a tree after it had a TPO!

Thanks for the reply. It's as I had feared, they will now turn us down due to the impact on the trees irrespective of the fact that the majority of impact is under the ground and they have already given us permission for that. I'm burning a fortune on architects, tree consultants and planning consultants. We are sure that we will win on appeal but are frustrated with how much money and time it is all taking. The tree consultant does work for the secretary of state and has written a report that the extension will definitely not impact the trees adversely, I'm sure he is more qualified than the landscape people at the council but they have got a real bee in their bonnet about taking six branches off the trees, despite the fact that the highways dept hacked them back to the trunk up to the height of a lamp post last year to keep the footpath clear, we only want to go a foot above that and the trees are very very tall.

sorry, I'm not a planning person, promise! Just a Parish Council bod
(but have probably annoyed householders such as you before