The Draft Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) entitled “Trees & Development Guidelines for Coventry” dated December 2019 was made available for public consultation on the Coventry City Council website where is was described to advise “on how tree protection measures and assessments should be considered in support of planning applications, TPO applications and Conservation Area notices.”

The consultation ran for six weeks between Monday 6 January 2020 and Monday 17 February 2020. The document can be downloaded here.

The document explained its purpose as follows:

1.1. Trees are a significant and highly visual component in the landscape, and as public awareness of environmental issues becomes more influential, there is an increasing need to focus attention on trees and their role in providing not only a pleasant environment, but their value to biodiversity and mitigating the adverse impacts of climate change.

1.2. This draft Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) allows Coventry City Council to respond to these sentiments and build upon the policies included in the Coventry Local Plan 2016 (hereby referred to as the Local Plan) when and where it relates to trees in Coventry, and the preservation and protection of trees during new development, and on existing sites. More generally, it describes and explains how the Council will interpret and apply the relevant sections of Planning Practice Guidance (PPG), and the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).

1.3. Furthermore, it will help to inform developers, land-owners, agents, architects, planning consultants, landscape architects, arboriculturists, contractors and other interested parties of the standards that the Council expects from new development proposals with regard to existing trees. It seeks to ensure that important trees are afforded due consideration in the planning process, so that they can be effectively integrated into new developments.

1.4. This document provides a comprehensive guide to the planning system, and the preservation and protection of trees during development in Coventry. For this reason, the intention of this document is to lead to an improved approach to the retention and planting of trees; thus making an important contribution to sustainable development in the city.

1.5. The structure of this document has been set out to follow the logical sequences by which development matters are generally processed; i.e. site surveys, development planning and organisation, obtaining planning permission and subsequent implementation; as identified in BS 5837:2012 – Trees in Relation to Design, Demolition and Construction.

References

Coventry Local Plan 2016