Issue - meetings

TPO Confirmed

Description of Application: Confirmation of Tree Preservation Order (TPO) 2727.

The officer recommendation was that the TPO be confirmed without modification.

Oral representations in objection to the application were heard at the meeting.

Photographs of the trees were circulated at the meeting.

The application had been referred to the Committee as an objection had been received. 

The Chairman asked if it was correct that the TPO had been made collectively on 5 individual trees and 2 groups of trees. The Senior Tree Officer confirmed that this was the case as site access had not been possible. He also said that it could be possible to modify the TPO. 

Ward Councillor Katy Boughey asked if a site visit had been made. The Tree Officer explained that visits had been attempted but the site had not been accessible. Councillor Boughey asked how site access could be obtained as this was key in assessing which individual trees should benefit from a TPO. She suggested that before a decision was made, perhaps arrangements could be made with the objector to arrange a site visit. The Senior Tree Officer replied that providing the 6 month expiry was not exceeded, the application could be deferred for a site visit.

Cllr Suraj Sharma motioned that the application be deferred so that a site visit could be undertaken and this was seconded by Cllr Boughey.

The Chairman proposed that the TPO be confirmed for all trees and then a site visit be arranged with the objector to see which trees (if any) should be felled or trimmed etc. This had been motioned earlier by Councillor Bance. 

A Member wondered why an application of this nature could come to Committee without a site visit.

The Tree Officer responded that two site visits had been made but it had not been possible to gain access. Councillor Samaris Huntington Thresher supported the proposal to confirm the TPO followed by a site visit. Councillor Boughey withdrew her motion for a deferral.

There was a unanimous vote to confirm the TPO.

Members having consulted the report, objections and representations, RESOLVED THAT THE TPO BE CONFIRMED for the reasons and subject to the conditions and informatives as set out in the report of the Assistant Director, Planning.

Post Meeting Note:

The landowner/objector has requested that the site description could be amended to being Plots 29 & 31 Holbrook Lane rather than land adjacent to 27 Holbrook Lane to avoid ownership and communication confusion.