The Tenterden conservation area: hedge and tree rules explained.

Rules & paperwork · Updated 20 September 2026

A conservation area doesn't ban you from touching your hedges or trees. What it does is add a six-week paperwork step before certain work goes ahead, and it's a step almost nobody outside the trade knows about until either their contractor mentions it or they get a letter from the council.

What the section 211 rule actually catches

Under section 211 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, anyone intending to cut down, top, lop, uproot or wilfully damage or destroy a tree in a conservation area must give the local planning authority, Ashford Borough Council here, six weeks' written notice before the work. The council can then, if it thinks the tree merits protection, make a Tree Preservation Order (TPO) within that window. If they don't act, you're free to proceed once the six weeks are up.

The rule applies to trees, not to hedging in the ordinary sense, but the trigger is a stem diameter, 75mm at 1.5m above ground, not a species list. A mature hedge with individual stems that have thickened past that point (common in old laurel, holly or overgrown Leylandii that's been left unmanaged for years) falls inside the rule even though it reads on a plan as "a hedge". A young, actively-maintained hedge with stems well under 75mm is exempt regardless of species.

What's exempt

• Any stem under 75mm diameter at 1.5m, the vast majority of routine annual hedge cutting.
• Dead trees need five working days' written notice to the council before the work, with evidence the tree is dead, but not the six weeks. Where a tree is an immediate risk of serious harm, do only the work needed and give written notice as soon as practicable afterwards. A tree that is merely dying or diseased still needs the full six weeks' notice.
• Work required to comply with an obligation under an Act of Parliament, or work by or on behalf of certain statutory undertakers.

Village conservation areas differ

Tenterden's own CA-43 is the one that catches most town-centre hedge and tree work, but it isn't the only one on the round. Several of the Weald villages I cover, Rolvenden and Biddenden among them, have their own separately designated conservation areas with the same 75mm-stem, six-week-notice rule. The boundaries and designation dates differ between them, so a job just outside the Tenterden CA boundary can still be inside a village CA, and vice versa. I check the specific address against the current Ashford Borough Council conservation area map before quoting, not the town name.

What I do about it

Every quote for work in or near a conservation area boundary includes a check of the address against the current Ashford Borough Council conservation area map, a measurement of the relevant stems against the 75mm threshold, and, where the notice is genuinely required, filing the section-211 notice on your behalf at no extra charge. If the six-week window doesn't fit your timeline, I say so at quote stage rather than start work and risk an enforcement issue landing on you.

Sources: Town and Country Planning Act 1990 s.211; Ashford Borough Council conservation areas register (CA-43, Tenterden, designated 10 October 1996); Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 s.1; GOV.UK, Tree Preservation Orders and trees in conservation areas.