PAPER B

 

Purpose: For Decision

 

Committee:      REGULATORY APPEALS COMMITTEE

 

Date:                28 FEBRUARY 2003

 

Title:                TREE PRESERVATION ORDER NO. 10, 2002 - HARBOUR STRAND AND BEMBRIDGE SAILING CLUB, EMBANKMENT ROAD, BEMBRIDGE

 

REPORT OF THE STRATEGIC DIRECTOR OF CORPORATE AND ENVIRONMENT SERVICES

 

 

SUMMARY

 

The trees are within Harbour Strand, and trees and wood within and around the land used as a car park by Bembridge Sailing Club.  A TPO was made on 3rd July 2002. An objection has been received. If the Order is to be confirmed this ideally should have been done by 2nd January 2003.

 

RECOMMENDATIONS

 

1.      Confirm TPO / 2002 / 10 with modifications.

 

2.      Remake TPO / 2002 / 10 as a new TPO with the same modifications

 

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

 

As with any TPO, compensation could be claimed by an applicant if consent to remove trees or for works to the trees were refused, and the refusal resulted in loss or damage.

 

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPLICATIONS

 

Removal of the trees and wood would be a loss for the local landscape.

 

BACKGROUND

 

Making of Order

 

Firstly, trees at Harbour Strand were believed to be under threat. A condition requiring the retention of trees was attached to the planning permission granted for Harbour Strand on 23rd January 1970.  However no Tree Preservation Order was made at that time, although Central Government guidance states that local authorities should not use planning conditions for long-term protection of trees, when TPOs are designed for that purpose.

 

In February 2002 the Tree and Landscape Officer investigated reports that a tree had been removed at Harbour Strand. This tree was not shown on the layout plan included within the planning application, and so it was presumed that no offence had taken place.

Secondly, trees on the adjoining site used as a car park by Bembridge Sailing Club were also perceived to be under threat. On 20th April 2002 a planning application was registered for a development which might have involved the loss of trees.

 

An Order was therefore made on 3rd July 2002 to protect 5 trees within the Harbour Strand site, and a wood and an area of trees within the Bembridge Sailing Club site. The trees were viewed from roads and public footpaths surrounding the site, which meant that the precise location of trees within the Bembridge Sailing Club car park could not be surveyed in detail, and so they were protected by an Area.

 

The grounds for making the Order were "the trees and wood are of high present and future amenity value and are visible from Embankment Road, Harbour Strand, public footpaths BB1, BB2 and BB19 and from across Bembridge Harbour from St Helen's Duver. The wood is also important as a wildlife habitat, as it forms a link to Knowles Copse."

 

Objection

 

An letter was received on 29th July from the landowner of the land used as Bembridge Sailing Club=s car park, with 3 reasons given for objection: AThe Bembridge Harbour Improvement Company Limited is a statutory authority/undertaker@ and the TPO would Ainterfere with its obligations@; Athere are no trees in the area A1"; Aexcept for the location of a turkey oak and a sycamore area W1 does not contain any trees of merit ... not under any circumstances eligible to be classified as a wood@.

 

Detailed site survey

 

The Tree & Landscape Officer visited the site on 9th July 2002 with the agent for the planning application, and made a more detailed survey of the trees, so that individual trees could be protected instead of being part of an Area when and if the Order was confirmed.

 

Comments on objections

 

The Tree and Landscape Officer wrote back on 7th August, responding to the points raised by the owner's objection letter, and asked if these comments had answered their objections.

The following is taken from that letter:

 

AThe existence of a Tree Preservation Order does not prevent an owner or occupier from carrying out necessary works or statutory duties.  You will see in section 5, paragraph (1)(a) of the Order that works are exempt if they are:

"... by or at the request of a statutory  undertaker, where the land on which the tree is situated is operational land of the statutory undertaker and the work is necessary:

 

(i)         in the interests of the safe operation of the undertaking;

(ii)        in connection with the inspection, repair or renewal of any sewers, mains, pipes, cables or other apparatus of the statutory undertaker; or

(iii)       to enable the statutory undertaker to carry out development permitted by or under the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order 1995."

 

and in section 5, paragraph (2) a statutory undertaker is stated to include "a person authorised by any enactment to carry on any ... harbour ... undertaking ..."

 

AThere are trees within A1, for example the horse chestnut on the Embankment Road frontage.

 

AThe Turkey oak is within A1 not W1.  An area of young woodland is still woodland even if it is not ancient.  Woodland is a semi-natural habitat of self-set trees and associated species.  Such woodland may have a value in the landscape, which is the primary criterion when making a Tree Preservation Order.@

 

No reply has been received.

 

Planning application

 

TCP/16179/C has since been withdrawn; application TCP/16179/D has been made and granted on 15th January 2003 for closure of vehicle access and amenity area; a further application TCP/16179/E, similar to TCP/16179/C, was received on 5th February 2003.

 

OPTIONS

 

Confirm or remake TPO / 2002 / 10 with modifications to exclude A1, except for the Turkey oak to the south east of 2 Embankment Road (to be protected as an individual tree); and to reduce the area of W1 to show an accurate boundary. 

 

If the order is confirmed or remade, it will ensure the continued existence of the trees for the foreseeable future.    

 

If the order is not confirmed or remade, the trees might be under threat.

Remaking the TPO would allow those affected to object to the modified Order.

 

BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS

 

1.                  Planning permission for Harbour Strand granted 23rd January 1970, reference TCP/6556/B.

2.                  Planning application for 1&2 Embankment Road registered 20th April 2002, reference TCP/16179/C.

3.                  Plan from TPO/2002/10 made 3rd July 2002.

4.                  Letter of objection from landowner, dated 26th July 2002, received 29th July 2002.

5.                  Letter in reply to landowner dated 7th August 2002.

6.                  Proposed modified plan of TPO/2002/10 following site visit on 9th July 2002.

7.                  Planning application for 1&2 Embankment Road approved on 15th January 2003, reference TCP/16179/D.

8.                  Planning application for 1&2 Embankment Road registered 5th February 2003, reference TCP/16179/E.

 

 

 

M J A FISHER

Strategic Director

Corporate and Environment Service