Trees and Landscape

Trees are an extremely important feature of the city and urban landscape of Islington.  The council is striving to retain as many healthy trees as possible within the borough while encouraging the planting of new trees.  The protection and retention of trees within residential back gardens, developments sites and environmental improvement projects is fundamental to the Tree and Landscape Teams role within Planning.

Trees in Islington fall broadly into two section, those that are on private land and those that are on land that is owned by the Islington Council.  Trees on private land are advised on, or dealt with, by the Tree and Landscape Section of Conservation and Design Team within the Planning Service.  Trees that are on council owned land are managed by The Urban Foresters in the Tree Service within Greenspace.

Trees on Private Land

The Tree and Landscape Section work towards achieving the policies within Islington’s Tree Policy and enact legislation to protect trees and reduce the level of unnecessary pruning of healthy trees, but also provide pre-application advise to owners of protected trees or trees in conservation areas.  Trees on private land are the responsibility of the owner to make sure that the tree is in good health and inspected regularly.  If tree work is required and not objected to by the council then the tree owner is the person who would usually pay for the work.  There are many trees in the borough protected by Tree Preservation Orders or located within conservation areas these require notification or an application to be submitted to carry out pruning or felling of a tree.

Trees within Islington may be protected by Tree Preservation Orders (TPOs) or by virtue of being in a conservation area, and in some cases by planning conditions to find out if this applies to your tree you can contact the Tree and Landscape Section.

Trees on Council owned Land

The Trees Section in Greenspace are responsible for advising on tree issues on council owned sites for details related to this see the link under related Information on the right side of this page for more details.