Tree surgeons in Bricket Wood
Bricket Wood has a named conservation area at Old Bricket Wood and a 70 hectare SSSI common on its doorstep. Ancient woodland next to private gardens makes the ownership question the first one to answer.
About Bricket Wood
Old Bricket Wood is one of the district's named conservation areas. Bricket Wood Common is a Site of Special Scientific Interest of about 70 hectares, within a wider holding of roughly 86 hectares, some 212 acres, with a core of about 63 hectares. It is ancient woodland and dry heath, owned by the Munden Estate and managed by St Albans City and District Council. Houses back directly onto it in places, so a tree that looks like a garden tree is quite often standing on common land, and cutting it would be somebody else's decision entirely.
What is protected in Bricket Wood
Conservation area cover at Old Bricket Wood, plus TPOs elsewhere in the village, plus an SSSI next door with its own consent regime that has nothing to do with the planning system. Three different rulebooks in one postcode. The practical answer is the same as everywhere else: we establish who owns the tree and what is on it before we quote, and we put that in writing so you are not relying on anyone's memory.
The trees round here
The common carries an oak and silver birch canopy over hornbeam and hazel, and gardens on the boundary inherit the same mix whether they wanted it or not. Hornbeam and hazel take a hard cut well and can be worked on a cycle, whereas a mature boundary oak is a reduce-and-keep tree in almost every case. Where roots from common land run under a garden, the answer is rarely to attack the roots.
Bricket Wood postcodes we cover
AL2.
Do you need permission to work on a tree in Bricket Wood?
Old Bricket Wood is a named conservation area, and the village sits against Bricket Wood Common, a Site of Special Scientific Interest of ancient oak and hornbeam. Garden trees in the conservation area need six weeks' written notice to St Albans council; trees under a Preservation Order need an application with an eight-week clock; and the penalty for destroying a protected tree is up to £20,000 per tree. With woodland this close, boundary and overhang questions come up more here than anywhere else we work, and we sort the permission position before we price the job. The full detail is in our guide to Tree Preservation Orders in St Albans.
What we do in Bricket Wood
- TPO register checked first We check the protected-tree position before we quote, on every job.
- Fixed written quotes Scope, access, waste and price on one sheet, before anyone climbs.
- No cold calling, ever We never knock doors after a storm and we never leaflet a price.
- Insured, qualified climbers Public liability cover on every job. Ask and we send the certificate.
Get a price in Bricket Wood
Free site visit, the protected-tree position checked, then a fixed price in writing.