Tree Surveys in Huddersfield: Effective Mitigation for Trees

Huddersfield Forestry

The sixth largest urban area in the Yorkshire and the Humber region, Huddersfield is a developed town within the West Yorkshire district of Kirklees. Statistics claim that Kirklees has an estimated 8,170 hectares of trees, meaning that 20% of the land area in the district was covered by trees. Huddersfield itself is predominantly urban, with the largely rural Kirklees in the surrounding area compensating for any shortfall in ecological value.

Rather than having a local council specific to Huddersfield, Kirklees Council oversees the town. In order to offset the significant number of developed locations across Huddersfield, Kirklees Council has pledged to lead numerous projects involving tree planting that will apply to all areas within the district. For example, an action plan spanning over four years starting in 2021 named the White Rose Forest Action Plan pledged to plant seven million new trees across Kirklees, amounting to 3,500 hectares of woodland.

While tree protections in place on existing trees and initiatives designed to plant new trees pose a positive influence on the environment in Huddersfield and broader Kirklees, protected trees can cause disruption to development projects. With the help of an arboriculturist in the form of a tree survey, however, developers can make the correct moves to continue their project and gain planning permission, even with trees present.

Local Trees Under Protection

Within environmental laws, trees can be safeguarded by the local council. The two main options are placing an individual tree under a Tree Preservation Order (TPO) or placing multiple trees within a conservation area. Both are otherwise similar, with jurisdiction under the local council and the requirement to seek prior consent before trees under either protection are affected by development works.

As with other locations in England and Wales, Huddersfield also holds tree protections in the form of TPOs and listed conservation areas – a potentially difficult thing to spot for any developers in the area. By planning a tree survey, however, a qualified arboricultural consultant will be able to assist with approaching protected trees correctly and eliminating any troublesome arboricultural issues.

Surveying and Reporting on Trees

A BS5837 tree survey will often be the advisable first step in the arboricultural assessment process. It involves an arboricultural surveyor visiting the development site and inspecting all trees present. Using specific details such as condition and value, the arboriculturist will then label each tree with a grading to gauge necessary next steps between retention, relocation and destruction.

Utilising a predetermined mitigation hierarchy, retention will rank as the top priority outcome. Trees that are in good condition and therefore hold value but are an unavoidable obstruction to the development, however, will need to be relocated elsewhere on-site or off-site. As for trees that are in poor condition or pose a risk to health and safety, the arboricultural consultant will be left with no choice but to destroy them and compensate with the planting of new trees.

All of the information from the assessment including the nature of the BS5837 survey, the grading of each tree and any recommendations of further arboricultural surveys needed on the site will be compiled in a tree survey report. Planning officers from local planning authorities recognise a tree report as containing trustworthy and insightful information. As such, they can be passed on to the local council to ease any qualms about trees on the site and influence a positive planning application.

Consultant Arboricultural Surveyors

Possessing the necessary qualifications, training and licensing, our arboriculturists are capable of providing private and professional clients with high quality tree surveys and assessments. They also hold crucial personal skills that make them dependable, trustworthy and reliable, particularly when it comes to satisfying both clients and local planning authorities.

In terms of your development site in Huddersfield, you can receive a free quote by getting in touch and supplying us with information about your site. Once we have confirmation that you are happy with the quote, we will be able to work out a date to conduct a tree survey on your site that suits your schedule. One of our expert arboricultural consultants can then support you in achieving planning consent on your site.