Bristol council 'failing to punish' for illegal tree felling

Tree enforcement notices used to be served regularly in the noughties but were much less common now, councillor Richard Eddy said

Developers are being allowed to chop down trees with impunity due to cuts to Bristol City Council's planning department, campaigners have said.

Bristol Tree Forum warned that trees were often being cut down illegally across the city.

The volunteer group said an under resourced planning enforcement team meant it was "not fit for purpose".

Staff numbers in the enforcement team have been cut in half in the past five years.

The team has three full-time members of staff, one part time and one on secondment from another department.

The council issues fewer enforcement notices than other similar sized cities, the growth and regeneration scrutiny commission heard on 29 September.

Mark Ashdown, chair of the Bristol Tree Forum, said: "Planning enforcement, as far as the protection of trees is concerned, is not fit for purpose.

"Many, many trees have been illegally removed and nothing has been done about it."

Councillor Richard Eddy, chair of development control committee A, said developers were regularly ignoring planning permission conditions due to lack of enforcement action.

"Up to the mid-noughties, we were seeing regular enforcement notices, which we're not seeing now," he said.

Mark Weston, leader of the council's Conservative group, said: "If Bristol has a reputation where enforcement isn't as robust, then people chance it.

"I'm finding this in my ward when it comes to tree protection orders, where people cut down a tree because there's no punishment for it."

He added: I'm worried we're gun-shy and creating an impression that it's OK to do it."

The council's head of development control said threat of legal action from developers was having a chilling effect on the number of enforcement notices issued.

Gary Collins said: "We have to be very careful that something alleged is a breach, [because] we can be penalised if we get that wrong.

"For example, if we served a stop notice on something that wasn't then a breach, we're left wide open to pay compensation to the developer if work ceased on the site and it wasn't a breach of planning control."

Mr Collins added: "The tools we're given by legislation are rather weak, and that's reflected in the experiences that citizens have of the enforcement system.

"The team is funded by planning application fees, so if the income is good then it's easier to run the service, and if the income goes down then it becomes much more challenging."