There is no single national Tree Preservation Order map — TPOs are made and held separately by each local planning authority, so to check a tree you first find the right council, then search its register, then confirm with the tree officer. Once you know the council, the check itself usually takes minutes, and it is trivial next to the cost of getting it wrong: felling or even hard-pruning a protected tree without consent is a criminal offence.
Step 1: Find the right council
TPOs are a local power under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. There is no central government database you can search across England, so the whole check hinges on identifying the local planning authority for the address. In two-tier county areas this is normally the district or borough council, not the county council; in unitary and metropolitan areas it is the single council. Get the tier wrong and you'll search a register that never held the order.
If you're not sure which council covers a postcode, our TPO checker points you to the right register by postcode and shows the tree-planning activity PlanWatch is tracking nearby — a useful early signal that something is happening around a tree you care about.
Step 2: Search the council's TPO register or map
Most councils publish their TPO records in one of a few forms. Look for:
- an online interactive map — often a GIS or "map search" layer showing TPO points, groups, areas and woodlands as symbols and shaded shapes;
- a searchable TPO register or list, indexed by reference number or address;
- a planning constraints layer on the council's main mapping tool, where TPOs sit alongside conservation areas, listed buildings and flood zones.
Search by address or postcode, or pan to the property. A protected individual tree usually shows as a point; groups, areas and woodlands as shaded polygons. Note the TPO reference number and the order type — you'll need both if you later apply for consent, query the record, or want the officer to confirm the exact tree.
Step 3: Check conservation-area status too
A TPO is not the only protection, and this is the mistake that catches people out. Trees in a conservation area are separately protected even without any TPO: anyone intending most works must give the council a section 211 notice six weeks in advance (see the full Tree Preservation Orders guide), and that six-week window is itself the council's chance to make a TPO. Conservation-area boundaries are frequently held on a different map layer from TPOs, so a blank result on the TPO map does not mean the tree is free to fell. Always check both layers.
Step 4: Confirm with the tree officer
Registers and maps are not always perfectly up to date, and the plotted point for a group, area or woodland order can be imprecise — sometimes a single marker stands in for dozens of trees. For a definitive answer on one specific tree, contact the council's tree officer (or planning enquiries) with the address, a description or photo of the tree's exact location, and the TPO reference if you have it. Ask them to confirm the status in writing. Before doing anything irreversible — felling, topping, or cutting roots for a driveway — that written confirmation is the thing worth having, because it is what protects you if a dispute arises later.
What the council pages typically look like
Because provision is local, the exact route differs from council to council, but the pattern is consistent:
| Where to look | What you'll typically find |
|---|---|
| Council "Trees and hedges" or "TPO" page | Guidance, the register, and a link to the map |
| Planning map / constraints search | TPO layer plus conservation areas and other designations |
| Tree officer / planning enquiries contact | The definitive human check for a specific tree |
| Local land charges / conveyancing search | TPOs surface in a formal property search when buying |
If your council's map is hard to find, the layer is missing, or the result looks ambiguous, the tree officer contact is the reliable fallback — treat the map as a first pass, not the last word.
A worked example
You've bought a corner plot and want to build a rear extension. The council's online map shows a shaded green polygon over the back of several gardens labelled with a TPO reference — an area order. It isn't obvious whether your mature ash is inside it, because the polygon is imprecise. You email the tree officer the reference, your address, and a photo showing the ash relative to the boundary. Two days later the officer confirms in writing that the ash is covered by the area TPO. That single email has just saved you from an unauthorised-works prosecution and told you your extension needs a BS5837 survey and probably consent to prune — before you spend a penny on drawings.
When a check really matters
Do the check before:
- any tree work — pruning, felling or root cutting on a protected tree without the council's written consent is a criminal offence, with fines up to £20,000 in the Magistrates' Court (unlimited in the Crown Court) for destroying a protected tree, plus a duty to plant a replacement;
- buying a property with notable trees — a TPO passes to you on purchase and limits what you can later do with the plot;
- designing a development — a protected tree on or near the site will shape your layout and require a BS5837 survey and an arboricultural impact assessment, with the tree's root protection area constraining where you can build.
Skipping the check is a false economy: the five minutes it takes is trivial next to a prosecution, a stalled sale, or a redesign forced late in a planning application.
Requirements — and registers — are set locally
Because TPOs are held council by council, the check genuinely differs by authority: the map software, the URL, the register format, how up to date it is, and how quickly the tree team replies all vary. A search on Leeds's system looks nothing like Lambeth's or Manchester's, and the density of TPOs and conservation areas varies enormously — some inner-London and historic-town wards are almost wholly within conservation areas, while other districts have sparse coverage. There is no shortcut around finding your authority's page.
That local variation is also why watching live activity pays off. PlanWatch tracks tree-related planning activity per council — applications and works that touch trees near an address — so you can spot a threat, or a neighbour's development pressing on a shared tree, before it's too late to act. Start at the tree-surveys hub and check your area.
This guide covers England. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland hold TPO-equivalent records through their own authorities and under their own legislation, so check the relevant national and local body if the tree is outside England.
Start your check
Enter a postcode on our TPO checker to find the right council register and see live tree-planning activity in the area. To understand what a positive result actually means for you, read what is a Tree Preservation Order, and if you need to protect a tree yourself, how to apply for a Tree Preservation Order. For the full picture, see the guide to Tree Preservation Orders.