When they think of tree surgeons, most people think of climbers swinging round in trees, wielding chainsaws, their ground crews feeding cut material through chippers below. Not an unreasonable preconception either as this broadly covers the bulk of work undertaken by many tree surgery companies across the UK.

Here at Dartmoor Tree Surgeons, we’ve got a few more strings to our bows though… Yes we have the crews out working on trees for clients (and not just guys either – we’ve got an excellent female climber working for us now too), we’ve got a strong advisory and consultancy service too.

What might you need arboricultural consultancy for? Well, the two most common reasons are for safety inspections and for new developments. The first is pretty self-explanatory, but the second is less well-known. That is until you find yourself submitting a planning application for anything from a new fence to an estate of new houses…

The 1APP form is the basis of all planning applications, and amongst its many questions is one asking whether there are any trees on or adjacent to the property; if yes, it advises that you will require a tree survey which complies with British Standard 5837:2012.

For many people, this appears to be an inconvenience, and often added and un-budgeted expense. More seriously, it generally results in the local planning authority refusing to even validate an application until they receive a BS5837 report.

We understand that having to commission a tree report can seem unduly bureaucratic, but having produced well over one thousand of these reports, we also know their value, not just to satisfy your council’s requirements, but also because when done properly they are actually a very powerful design tool, especially when they include plans produced in AutoCAD as the British Standard requires (we do all our own AutoCAD work in-house – it allows us to produce our reports far more quickly and accurately).

So before you start tearing your hair out at the need to apparently tick more boxes, give us a call first to discuss the project – even better, call us before you even commission your architect!

One last thing… You’ll find that our professional reports are produced by Advanced Arboriculture, not Dartmoor Tree Surgeons. Why? Well, first of all, our consultancy work takes us all over the UK, and the Dartmoor name sometimes constrains us geographically. Secondly, remember what most people think of when they think of “tree surgeons”?

If you want to find out more about Advanced Arboriculture’s consultancy services, visit www.advancedarb.com

By Tom Hurley | April 30th, 2015