Crown reduction in Edgbaston, Harborne & Bearwood

Crown reduction is often the better answer than removal in this patch. The big trees in Edgbaston gardens and along the Moor Pool roads are a large part of why people live here, and the estate, the council and the neighbours are all more likely to agree to a reduction than a felling. But a reduction still counts as tree work, so in much of Edgbaston and Harborne it needs permission first.

Branch and Bramble doesn't do the work. We pass your enquiry to one local tree surgeon who covers B15, B16, B17, B32, B66, B67 and B68, and they confirm a fixed price with you directly.

What crown reduction costs in Edgbaston and Harborne

The crown reduction cost guide prices a 13m beech in an Edgbaston conservation area at about £480–£750, once the council's six weeks have run, and an 8m Harborne cherry at about £320–£480. A cherry or birch in a Bearwood or Oldbury garden is usually a small job. The mature planes and limes behind Edgbaston villas are often over 15 metres and go to a free survey.

What pushes the price up here

• Height and spread. A wide plane or cedar takes a climber much longer than a garden cherry, and there is far more brash to chip.
• Roofs, walls and glasshouses. Branches over a roof move the job to a survey, and anything over a conservatory has to be roped down.
• Working from next door. If the only safe way into the tree is from a neighbour's garden, you need their agreement first.
• Terrace access. In Bearwood and Smethwick, the cuttings often go out through the house. That, or a tree more than 20 metres from the van, adds around 15%.
• More than one tree. Two or three trees cost about 1.8 times one.
• Keeping the chippings. Takes about £75 off.

Permission for pruning, not just felling

The Calthorpe Estate. If you live inside the estate's Scheme of Management, the Residents' Handbook says that if you plan to reshape, substantially prune or reduce a tree, you will likely need the estate's consent. The Calthorpe FAQs say the same applies to trimming a tree. The handbook asks for work to BS 3998, and for tree surgeons with at least £5 million employers' and public liability insurance and NPTC chainsaw certificates. Fruit trees are outside the Scheme, and trees with a TPO go straight to the council instead.

Birmingham City Council. In the Edgbaston, Barnsley Road, Lee Crescent, Ryland Road, St Augustine's, Greenfield Road, Harborne Old Village and Moor Pool conservation areas, pruning a tree over 75mm across at 1.5m high needs six weeks' notice. On the Moor Pool estate, trees standing when the conservation area was created are covered by an area TPO from 1971, so a reduction there needs formal consent. For a TPO tree, the council says consent is needed even for branches that encroach over your boundary.

Sandwell Council. Sandwell says trees in its conservation areas, including 4 to 32 Bearwood Road, have protection similar to a TPO, and it needs six weeks' notice before any work.

Topping is never a good answer for these trees, and it is an offence on a protected one without consent. Ask for a reduction to growth points that you can describe clearly in the notice.

The trees of Moor Pool and Edgbaston

The council's 2012 Moor Pool appraisal gives a good picture of what grows on the estate:

• Lime and birch are the most common mature trees, planted roughly every 20 metres along most roads when the estate was built.
• Oak and sycamore appear in significant numbers in places.
• Horse chestnut forms an impressive group on West Pathway.
• London plane lines East Pathway, the only road on the estate where it grows.
• Beech hedges were the original front boundary, and many survive alongside taller privet.

In Edgbaston, the Calthorpe handbook notes that most gardens on the estate include mature trees, and calls trees a defining character of the area. Limes and planes keep growing from the new tips after a reduction, so plan on repeating it every few years. Silver birch bleeds sap if cut in late winter and spring, so it is better done in summer or early autumn.

Street and council trees

The planes and limes along the roads are not yours to reduce. Birmingham City Council is responsible for trees on its land. Sandwell's arboriculture team covers council trees in Sandwell. Neither council will prune a tree just because it blocks light or affects TV reception, and Sandwell won't prune for sap or bird droppings either. In both, you can cut overhanging branches back to your boundary from your own side, but Birmingham excludes trees with a TPO or in a conservation area.

Nesting birds are protected by law. Heavy pruning in spring and early summer needs a check for active nests first.

What the job involves

1. Agreeing the target. You and the specialist agree how much height and spread to lose, in metres, and which limbs matter.
2. Consents. The specialist helps prepare the council notice, and on the Calthorpe Estate a short report helps the estate's inspection.
3. Climbing and cutting. A roped climber shortens each branch to a side branch that can take over as the tip.
4. Clearing up. Cuttings are lowered, chipped and taken away.

A previously pollarded lime may need pollarding instead. If a tree is beyond saving, see tree removal.