← All guides · Rules & paperwork · 30 September 2026

How to get permission to prune a tree in Goodnestone conservation area: send the notice yourself, or have it prepared?

People call it a conservation area permit, but the paperwork is a free section 211 notice to Dover District Council. Before the steps, there is one real choice to make: write and send it yourself, or have me prepare it. Both are legitimate, and each has a cost.

Goodnestone is one of the villages with a conservation area in Dover District Council's area (the council covers 57 in all). (There is another small place called Goodnestone near Faversham. It is in Swale Borough Council's area, a different council, and this guide is about the one near Wingham in Dover District, CT3.) My existing guide on hedge rules near the Park and the church covers the trade-off over cutting near those two landmarks. This page is the application walkthrough.

The decision: do the notice yourself, or have it prepared

Pros of doing it yourself

• It costs nothing. There is no fee, and the law does not require any particular form.
• You can start the six weeks today, without waiting for a site visit.
• You keep full control of the wording and the dates.

Cons of doing it yourself

• The size test is easy to get wrong with a tape measure and a tree that forks. A wrongly measured stem either sends an unnecessary notice or skips a needed one.
• A vague description ("tidy the tree") is the most common reason the council has to come back to you. The guidance says a notice must describe the work and identify the trees, so vagueness costs time.
• If the work later goes beyond what you described, that extra work is not covered.

Pros of having me prepare it

• I measure every stem at 1.5m, mark the trees on a sketch and write the work in terms the tree officer can act on in one read.
• The work is done to the wording of the notice, so there is no gap between what was sent and what was cut.

Cons of having me prepare it

• It adds a step before the six weeks start, because I need to see the trees first.
• The notice is still yours legally as the owner. You are trusting my measurements, and you should read the notice before it goes.

My recommendation: if it is one small tree and you are happy with a tape measure, do it yourself with the steps below. If it is a hedge line with several trees in it, or a tree near the church or the Park, let me prepare it. Either way it is free to notify the council. For a second option, the Arboricultural Association's find a professional directory lists registered tree firms.

Which trees need notice?

Use this checklist before writing anything:

• Size: a trunk over 75mm across, measured over the bark at 1.5m above the ground, needs notice for cutting down, topping, lopping or uprooting. At 75mm or under, none.
• Thinning: a trunk of 100mm or less can be cut down or uprooted without notice if the only aim is to help other trees grow.
• Species: any. Hornbeam, field maple, hawthorn that has run to a tree, ash, beech, yew, leylandii and other conifers, laurel grown into a tree all count if they pass the size test.
• Several stems: if a tree has more than one stem at 1.5m and any of them is over the limit, the small-tree exemption is lost. Measure each.
• Hedge or tree: shrubs and clipped hedge plants are not trees for this rule. Trees standing in or beside a hedge, or an old hedge that has grown into a line of tall trees, can be.
• Triggering work: cutting down, uprooting, topping, lopping, wilful damage or destruction. Ordinary trimming of the hedge plants is not.
• Different rules: dead or dangerous trees (step 8); fruit trees grown commercially, and pruning of a fruiting tree to good horticultural practice (Dover's own page says "fruit trees cultivated for fruit production"); work needed to carry out an existing planning permission; and any tree that already has a TPO.

Worked example. A boundary hedge beside the churchyard wall has a hornbeam that has been left to grow through it. The tape at 1.5m reads 72cm. Divide by 3.14: about 22.9cm, so 229mm across. It is far over 75mm (23.6cm on the tape), so topping or lopping it needs notice. The hawthorn either side reads 15cm round, about 48mm across, so clipping it is just hedge work.

The eight steps

1. Check the address

Search Dover's conservation area map by postcode or street, and read the council's conservation areas page. The designated area is called Goodnestone. The parish is wider than the village, and Dover's list also carries Chillenden and, on the Nonington side, Nonington - Church Street and Nonington - Easole Street, plus Wingham to the north. Knowlton, Rowling and Tickenhurst are not named on the list. The map is for viewing only, so email the council if you are near an edge.

2. Check it is a tree, and check for a TPO

Run the size test, then look at Dover's TPO map. If a Tree Preservation Order covers the tree, you need formal consent, not a notice. The council's planning history search shows any planning conditions protecting trees on newer plots.

3. Decide the work and photograph it

Which tree, which limbs, to what height, and why. Photograph the whole tree and the parts you would cut.

4. Gather what the council needs

By law: a description of the work, enough to identify each tree, and the date. The Planning Portal also suggests a sketch map, the species and condition, and your interest in the land.

5. Submit it

There are two routes, and the second real trade-off is which to use.

Email tree.enquiries@dover.gov.uk

• Pro: this is the route Dover's tree protection page names for conservation area notices. You can attach photos and a sketch, and you keep a dated sent copy.
• Con: no form prompts you for missing details, so the notice is only as complete as you make it.

The Planning Portal online notification

• Pro: the Planning Portal's notification of proposed works to trees in conservation areas is a structured form that asks for the details.
• Con: it is more fields to complete, and Dover's own page names email for this notice, so it is sensible to ask the council to confirm it has arrived.

There is no fee on either route.

6. The six weeks

The council can make a TPO, say the work may go ahead, or say nothing. It cannot refuse a notice as such. If nothing is said, you may go ahead once six weeks have passed and you then have two years from the date of the notice. The work can start sooner only with the council's consent.

7. After the wait

Do what the notice said and no more. Use insured, trained people; BS 3998 is the British Standard for tree work. Keep the notice, any reply and the photos. If a tree in a conservation area is removed, the owner must plant a suitable replacement in the same place.

8. Dead and dangerous trees

For a dead tree, GOV.UK says to give the council five working days' written notice before the work, unless there is an immediate risk of serious harm. Where a tree presents an immediate risk of serious harm and needs urgent work, give written notice as soon as practicable afterwards. Do only what removes the danger, and photograph it first.

What to write in the notice

Hedges are separate, and skipping the notice is costly

Clipping a hedge is not tree work. Removing countryside hedgerows is covered by the Hedgerows Regulations 1997, a separate regime, explained in the government guidance. Cutting, topping, lopping or wilfully damaging a protected tree without notice is a criminal offence, and the guidance gives fines of up to £20,000 in the magistrates' court and an unlimited fine in the Crown Court, plus a possible duty to replant.

Sources: GOV.UK, Tree Preservation Orders and trees in conservation areas; Planning Portal, works to trees; Dover District Council, tree protection and conservation areas (checked 30 September 2026). General information, not legal advice.