Ramsgate conservation areas: hedge and tree rules
Much of central Ramsgate sits inside a conservation area. The rule that catches homeowners out is not the designation itself, it is the six-week s.211 notice that applies once a tree stem in your hedge is over 75mm across at 1.5m above the ground.
Ramsgate has several separate conservation areas
Thanet District Council has designated 27 conservation areas across the district. The Ramsgate-side ones are separate designations: Ramsgate, Ramsgate Royal Esplanade, Ramsgate Montefiore and Pegwell. Which one your garden falls in, if any, depends on the exact address, so check the council's conservation area location map rather than assuming from the street name. Whichever one it is, the tree rules below work the same way.
Conservation area status also tightens some planning controls on the buildings themselves, but it does not change what you can do to an ordinary hedge. The part that matters for gardens is the tree notice below.
What the CA actually does for hedges
A Conservation Area designation does not mean you need permission for routine hedge work. Cutting a privet, laurel, Leylandii, yew, Griselinia or Elaeagnus hedge at its normal height is exempt from CA planning controls. You can book routine cuts freely.
What the CA does do is bring hedge trees into the section-211 notice regime under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.
Section 211: the six-week notice
Inside any Conservation Area, section 211 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 requires six weeks' written notice to the local planning authority (Thanet DC, in Ramsgate) before you carry out work to a tree. The council uses those six weeks to decide whether to make a Tree Preservation Order. Do work without the notice and you commit a criminal offence, with a fine of up to £20,000 in the magistrates' court (unlimited in the Crown Court).
The key threshold is the diameter of the stem, measured at 1.5m above the ground:
- Trunk diameter greater than 75mm at 1.5m: s.211 notice required before pruning or felling.
- Trunk diameter greater than 100mm at 1.5m: the threshold if the felling is purely to improve the growth of other trees.
"But is a hedge a tree?"
This is where most Ramsgate homeowners get caught. Section 211 applies to trees, and hedges and shrubs are normally not covered. An ordinary garden hedge, a normal line of privet, laurel, Leylandii, Griselinia or hawthorn kept at a domestic height, can be cut without a notice.
But a tree growing in a hedge can be covered, and a mature hedge often contains stems that qualify as trees. An old holly in a hedge line. A yew standard. A sea buckthorn or a Tamarix that has been left long enough for the main trunk to thicken. A leylandii allowed to run to 6m with an 80mm stem. Any of those can count as a tree for the purposes of s.211 once the stem is over the 75mm test.
The practical rule I work to: before cutting back a hedge with visible woody standards, I put a tape measure on the largest stem at 1.5m. If it is close to the threshold, a notice is filed as a precaution. The six weeks are usually manageable inside a normal quote-to-work timeline.
Tree Preservation Orders on top
There are also freestanding Tree Preservation Orders in Ramsgate, in and outside the conservation areas. A TPO tree needs formal written consent from Thanet DC before work, which is a separate process from s.211 and not a notice-then-proceed arrangement. I check whether a TPO applies before quoting any reduction work that involves a tree.
Coastal-safety zone
One Ramsgate-specific point. Gardens directly on the cliff edge can sit close to coastal defences and cliff-stability works. If you are digging or doing heavy work at the base of a hedge on a clifftop plot, check with the council before starting. Routine hedge cutting is not affected.
What we handle for you
Where a quote touches a stem near the threshold, I draft the s.211 notice, submit it to Thanet District Council, and schedule the work for after the six-week clock has run. You do not have to file anything.
Want this looked at?
Send a couple of photos and your postcode to hello@ramsgatehedges.co.uk or 07763 100 477.
Sources: GOV.UK, Tree preservation orders and trees in conservation areas; Thanet District Council, Conservation areas and Works to protected trees pages.
Related: got a council notice? What to do if you receive a section 154 notice.