Thursday 14th October 2010

Chesterfield Borough Council successfully prosecuted two defendants on 15th September at North East Derbyshire and Dales Magistrates Court for breaching a Tree Preservation Order (TPO).

The TPO covers many individual trees and groups of trees in the St Johns Road/Lancaster Road area. A group of trees referred to in the order known as "G1" was in the front garden of a house in St Johns Road owned and occupied by Miss Susan Atkin.

In March this year, she arranged for Silverdale Garden Services Ltd (a company owned by William Bingham of Millhouses Lane, Sheffield) to cut down and remove the stump of the largest tree in the group, a Lawson Cypress.

A few weeks later she severely pruned the other trees in the group (eight Lawson Cypresses, a Cedar and a Holly) by removing all their branches and upper crowns leaving only bare main stems of 1 - 2 metres in height.

The Council's Tree Officer considered that the damage amounted to wilful destruction and had completely ruined the amenity value of the trees and made them unlikely to survive.

Miss Atkin said that she had been aware of the TPO from when she bought the house, but had not checked which trees were covered and assumed it was other trees in her garden. Mr Bingham said that he thought that conifers were not usually covered by TPOs and asked a neighbour if there was a TPO or if the area was a Conservation Area. He said that he usually checked with the local authority about whether there was a TPO but had not done so on this occasion.

Miss Atkin was found to be negligent for not checking the details of the TPO before getting the work done. Mr Bingham was also found negligent and reckless in relying on asking neighbours if there was a TPO rather than checking with the Council.

The defendants were given credit for their guilty pleas and each fined £750 with £100 costs and £15 victim surcharge.

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