Tree removal in North Birmingham

Most tree removals in North Birmingham aren't held up by permission. The challenge is getting a sycamore, conifer or tired old ash out of a narrow back garden in Kingstanding, Erdington or Handsworth with no side gate and nowhere to drop the pieces. Kingstanding's council estates, built mostly in the 1930s and 1940s and around 6,700 homes when complete, set the pattern for much of the patch: semis and short terraces where the only way to the back is a shared entry or the house itself.

Permission still matters at the edges. B42 and B43 are split between Birmingham, Sandwell and Walsall, and each runs tree protection differently.

Branch and Bramble doesn't do the work. We pass your enquiry to one local tree surgeon who covers B6, B20, B23, B24, B42, B43 and B44, and they confirm a fixed price with you directly.

What tree removal costs in North Birmingham

Prices are by height and include cutting up and taking away all the wood and brash.

Most jobs here are small or medium trees, so they are usually priced from photos. Access is what moves the number. Two small trees behind a terrace where everything has to go through the house come to roughly £580–£790: 1.8 times the single-tree price, plus about 15% for the carry. The tree removal cost guide has more worked examples.

What pushes the price up here

• Through the house or a shared entry. If every log and branch has to go out by hand that way, or the tree is more than 20 metres from the van, expect around 15% more.
• No drop zone. In a small garden with a shed, greenhouse or a neighbour's extension below, each section has to be lowered on a rope, which needs more time and a bigger crew.
• The road outside. Birmingham City Council needs a highways licence for lifting equipment on a public road, and for placing materials on it. If a cherry picker has to stand in the street, or the timber has to sit on the pavement while it is loaded, the specialist arranges the licence and includes it in the price.
• More than one tree. Two or three trees cost about 1.8 times the price of one; four or more about 2.5 times.
• Keeping the logs. Having the wood cut and stacked for you takes about £75 off.

Which council, and what it wants first

The legal duty to check is yours as the owner, but a good tree surgeon will check with you.

Birmingham (B6, B20, B23, B24, B44 and most of B42 and B43). Most of this side of the city has no conservation area, so you only need consent if the tree has its own TPO. The exception is the Aston Hall and Church conservation area in B6, designated in 1972, where six weeks' notice applies to any tree over 75mm across at 1.5 metres. For a TPO tree you apply through the Planning Portal. There's no fee, a council tree officer assesses it, and Birmingham aims to decide within 6 to 8 weeks.

Sandwell (Hamstead and parts of Great Barr). None of Sandwell's nine conservation areas is in this corner of the borough, so again it comes down to TPOs. Sandwell asks you to check on its public access planning system, and applications go through the Planning Portal. It warns that deliberately destroying a protected tree can mean a fine of up to £20,000, and that you'll normally have to plant a new tree.

Walsall (Pheasey). Walsall has no online TPO map. Ring its tree officers, who say they can usually tell you within minutes. One form covers TPO and conservation-area trees. Once it is registered, neighbours are notified and have 21 days to comment, then a tree officer visits. Walsall decides conservation-area cases within six weeks and TPO cases within eight. Its Great Barr conservation area, extended in 1996, takes in the Great Barr Hall estate and countryside beyond it, so check if you live near its edge.

Dead trees, licences and the wood

A dead protected tree in Walsall still needs at least five working days' written notice before it comes down. Only an urgent and serious safety risk can be dealt with first, with notice as soon as practicable afterwards. In Birmingham, a tree surgeon usually sends a five-day emergency notice for a dead or dangerous conservation-area tree. In either case you may later have to plant a replacement.

You won't need a Forestry Commission felling licence for a garden tree. Sandwell's guidance points out that the licence is something to check only when trees are not in a residential garden.

The wood can't go to the council tip with the specialist. Perry Barr Household Recycling Centre on Holford Drive is for Birmingham residents with a booking, and no commercial vehicles are allowed. Sandwell's Shidas Lane site has skips for wood and garden waste but bars landlords and businesses. So the specialist takes everything to a licensed site as a registered waste carrier, and that is in the price. Our guide on what happens to the wood explains the options.

What the job involves

1. Checks. The specialist confirms which council covers your address, whether the tree is protected and whether there are nesting birds or signs of bats.
2. Protecting the route. If everything goes through the house or a shared entry, sheets and boards go down, and neighbours are told when the entry will be in use. See access through the house.
3. Dismantling. A roped climber removes the side branches, then lowers the main stem in sections into whatever space the garden has.
4. Clearing and the stump. Branches are chipped and logs cut to size. If you ask, the stump is ground out at the same visit, which costs less than booking stump grinding later.

A healthy tree that has outgrown the garden may only need a crown reduction.