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To help protect Britain's forests, a felling licence from the Forestry Commission is required to fell trees.

It is an offence to fell trees without a licence if an exemption does not apply.

Some exemptions are:

• The trees are in a garden (but some gardens will be large enough to be clasified as a wood and will need a tree felling licence)


• Lopping, topping, pruning and pollarding


• To fell less than 5 cubic metres in a calendar quarter (Please note that you cannot sell more than 2 cubic metres in a calendar quarter)


• For trees that have the following diameters when measured 1.3 metres from the ground
  
  
  
  • 8 cm or less
  
  
  • 10 cm or less for thinnings
  
  
  • 15cm or less for cutting coppice
  
  
  
  

If trees to be felled are covered by a Tree Preservation Order or are located in a Conservation Area and the Forestry Commission has not been informed of this, any felling licence issued will not cover these trees and the applicant may commit an offence by felling them.