Natural England and the Forestry Commission have published updated Standing Advice on Ancient Woodlands and Veteran Trees.

Standing advice is a ‘material’ planning consideration, meaning that it should be taken into account when making decisions on planning applications. This updated advices sets out what planning authorities should consider for developments affecting ancient woodland and veteran trees. Ancient Woodland is defined as any area that’s been wooded continuously since at least 1600 AD, and can include modern plantations on ancient sites and historic parkland and wood pasture. Veteran trees can refer to veteran, ancient, or aged trees, which generally have cultural, historical, landscape and nature conservation value because of their age, size, or condition. This can include single trees or groups within woodland or parkland, hedgerow trees or trees in old orchards.

The updated standing advice can be accessed on the gov.uk website here.

Information about our veteran tree, ancient woodland and historic orchard datasets is available here: