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How to: Determine if you need a full tree assessment

Oliver Lewis avatar
Written by Oliver Lewis
Updated this week

This page helps you decide—quickly and confidently—whether your project needs a full arboricultural assessment (e.g. a BS 5837 report) or if a short, proportionate note is enough.

Each Local Planning Authority (LPA) defines “impact” differently. Your tool automatically loads your LPA’s rule and shows it to you on the Intersections page.

  1. In the header card, read Your LPA’s criteria. This is the rule we apply when deciding if a full assessment is needed.

    Example of header text

    Please note that, for most LPAs, the criteria to avoid any further reports will be "0" intersections, "0" felled trees and "0" pruned trees. However you should always follow your LPA’s criteria card on the Intersections page.

  2. How to read and change the counts

    • Click the Intersections tile to see which features (trenches, slabs, footings, levels, demo, services) are intersecting which trees.

    • Click the Pruning tile to review any marked pruning.

    • Click the Felling tile to review any proposed removals.

You can click the Edit the parcel to change the design if your design has changed or to otherwise edit your works or update the tree actions; the counts update instantly.

When you have made all the changes needed, press continue to get your documents.

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