Trees and hedges guidance
Trees owned by the council
Check if a tree or trees are owned or maintained by the council
Buckinghamshire Council, or town or parish councils may own or be responsible for trees in parks and public spaces, or in woodlands.
To find out if the council owns a tree, contact us:
- Aylesbury: [email protected]
- Chiltern & South Bucks: [email protected]
- Wycombe: [email protected]
If the tree is on the adopted highway, it will be managed by Buckinghamshire Highways. You can report concerns about trees on the highway online.
If the council does not own or maintain the tree, you will need to contact HM Land Registry to do a search to establish who the owner is.
Felling council-owned trees
There may be many reasons why the council fells a tree it owns or maintains.
Generally, we will remove trees to improve the sustainability of surrounding planting or to reduce foreseeable risk to people and property. The council does not remove trees without good reason.
Requesting a TPO for a tree owned by the council
This is not normally possible. Protecting trees unnecessarily is a cost to the taxpayer, which is why we don’t protect trees as a matter of course.
Trees are normally given a TPO if they are both high in amenity value, and are at risk of being felled. The council will normally only fell a tree as a last resort.
This means that very few council-owned trees are at risk and require protection.