North Birmingham is mostly ordinary family gardens, and a lot of them: the 1930s council estates of Kingstanding and Perry Common, Victorian and Edwardian streets in Handsworth, Aston and Erdington, and interwar semis spreading out towards Great Barr and Pype Hayes. Gardens are narrower than in Sutton Coldfield but often long, and many have gone years without serious attention.
The patch runs across three councils. B6, B20, B23, B24 and B44 are Birmingham City Council. B42 and B43 are split: most of Perry Barr and Oscott is Birmingham, but Hamstead and parts of Great Barr are in Sandwell, and Pheasey is in Walsall. The council you pay council tax to decides which tree rules, collection service and tip apply.
Branch and Bramble doesn't do the work. We send your enquiry to one local specialist who covers these postcodes, and they agree a fixed price with you.
Tree Preservation Orders and conservation areas
Most gardens here are not in a conservation area, so the usual question is whether an individual tree has a Tree Preservation Order. Birmingham publishes TPO sites on its online TPO map, and its find out if a tree is protected page explains how to request a copy of an Order. Protected trees do turn up on ordinary streets, often older oaks kept when estates were built around them. Our guide on how to check if a tree has a TPO walks through it.
The conservation areas that do matter here:
- Aston Hall and Church (Birmingham), around Aston Hall and its park in B6.
- Great Barr (Walsall), a very large area covering the Great Barr Hall estate, its lakes and woodland, the golf course and Barr Beacon. In 2025 Walsall Council decided to keep the boundary as it is after consultation on shrinking it.
- Lozells and Soho Hill (Birmingham) sits just south of the Handsworth part of this patch.
For a tree in a conservation area with a trunk over 75mm across at 1.5m high, you must give the council six weeks' written notice (a section 211 notice) before cutting or pruning it. See trees in conservation areas.
Sandwell addresses check TPOs through the council's public access planning system. Walsall has no interactive map; it publishes a quarterly TPO register and asks you to contact its tree officers to confirm.
The local landscape
The Kingstanding and Perry Common estates were built by the council in the 1930s, with long, narrow back gardens and rear access that is often awkward or shared. Decades on, the far ends of many have become thickets of bramble, elder and self-seeded sycamore, with conifer screens between neighbours that have grown far past the height anyone intended.
Handsworth and Handsworth Wood have larger Victorian, Edwardian and 1930s houses, with mature limes, horse chestnuts and copper beeches in front gardens and on the old estate roads. Aston and parts of Erdington have tight terraces where the only way to the back garden is through the house or a shared entry.
Ash is common in hedgerows and along the Tame valley and railway edges, and ash dieback has left many garden ash trees in decline. Dead or dying ash becomes brittle and is worth dealing with before it drops limbs. Sycamore and London plane line the older main roads, and roots from street trees lifting front paths are a frequent complaint, though street trees are the council's responsibility.
Tree work in North Birmingham
Typical tree jobs here are smaller than in the suburbs to the north and east, but access makes them harder. A 10-metre sycamore at the bottom of a Kingstanding garden with no side gate means every piece is carried out through the house or down a shared entry, and that adds time. Removals start from £280 for a small tree, and the specialist confirms a fixed price from your photos. Our guide on what to photograph for a tree quote shows how to capture the access.
Common requests:
- Conifer and Leylandii between semis, either taken down to a manageable height with hedge reduction or taken out with hedge removal. See the Leylandii guide.
- Declining ash that needs tree removal or dismantling in sections before it becomes dangerous.
- Overgrown fruit trees and sycamores reduced to let light back in: crown reduction.
- Stumps left from old DIY felling, removed by stump grinding so the ground can be used.
Around Great Barr Hall and Handsworth Park, check protection before anything is cut. The tree surgeon we pass your enquiry to has had their insurance and NPTC certificates checked. See the North Birmingham tree surgery page or all tree services.
Local questions
My postcode is B43. Is my council Birmingham, Sandwell or Walsall?
It could be any of the three. B43 covers parts of Perry Barr and Oscott (Birmingham), Hamstead and parts of Great Barr (Sandwell) and Pheasey (Walsall). B42 is mostly Birmingham with a Sandwell edge. Your council tax bill is the quickest way to check, and it decides your bin service, your tip and who handles tree notices.
Is there a council garden waste collection in North Birmingham?
For Birmingham addresses, the paid service was suspended in 2025 because of the bin strike and had not returned in early 2026; check the council website for updates. Sandwell addresses can subscribe for £40 for 2026. Walsall addresses in Pheasey get a free fortnightly brown bin collection.
Do I need permission to take down a tree in my Kingstanding garden?
Usually not. Kingstanding is not in a conservation area, so permission is only needed if the tree has a Tree Preservation Order. Check the council's online TPO map first, and see do I need permission to cut down a tree? for the other cases, such as nesting birds.
Can a garden be cleared between tenancies at short notice?
Often, yes. Tell us the date you need it done by in the quote form, and add photos of the whole garden and the access route. The local specialist will say whether they can meet the date when they confirm the price.