Timothy Straker KC and Elizabeth Nicholls successful for Newport City Council, on appeal, for breach of a Tree Preservation Order
On 22 August 2025, Her Honour Judge Hughes at Newport Crown Court dismissed the appeal of a homeowner who illegally felled a “magnificent” 100-year-old lime tree.
The tree stood in the garden of Mrs Rands’ £500,000 property. Over the years she had several planning applications refused by the Council, due to the tree being protected by a Tree Preservation Order (TPO). However, she instructed a contractor to fell the tree between 2010 and 2013, planting a small replacement tree some years later.
The Council received a ‘tip-off’ by a member of the public and an investigation showed the tree was felled 10 years previously.
It was successfully argued on behalf of the Council that, although the law differs in Wales, ‘causing or permitting’ a tree to be felled under section 210(1) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 is as much an offence as having your ‘hands on the axe’. Mrs Rands had unsuccessfully argued that the tree was fire damaged. The ‘financial benefit’ that had accrued to Mrs Rands by the increase in value of the property, by removing the tree, was assessed at £50,000. She was fined £16,000 - at the time the offence, a £20,000 fine limit was in place. Today the offence carries an unlimited fine. Costs were successfully argued for the Council in the sum of £100,000 - payable from Mrs Rands’s capital assets.
The case raised significant legal points on the difference of the law in Wales, compared to England, how the offence can be committed by landowners and how the court approaches sentencing a breach of a TPO under TCPA1990. The case has been covered extensively in the media:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/61e36f3f140ac4f0
‘Arrogant’ Newport woman to pay £116k for chopping down tree | South Wales Argus
Counsel was instructed by Sarah Dodd, Tree Law.
