Projects

ACL are widely considered to be the premier professional designation for arboricultural consulting input in the planning and development sectors in Great Britain. Working with architects, planning consultancies and engineers we support planning applications spanning the entire spectrum of scale, from private developers to volume house builders to commercial construction.

As one of the largest and fastest growing consultancies in the sector, we have a roster of consultants and executives undertaking instruction at every level, ensuring the client at all times has access to appropriately qualified and experienced consultant experts in a variety of disciplines and specialisations. Our project history is extensive and prestigious, a reflection of our commitment to the lead consultant in delivering a defendable and secure planning application, which predictably results in local authority support and consent.

We provide a very comprehensive service, segmented into work stages; typically starting with a (pre site purchase) constraints study before moving on to the plans and written statements which inform the design team and support the application. We use the full version of AutoCAD to deliver concise and succinct, plan based reports, something appreciated by everyone involved in the planning process. Post planning, ACL acts in most cases in a micro project management capacity, having a well deserved reputation for the efficacy of our work in organising and collaborating site specific input from tree, ecology and landscape contractors – from site clearance to finishing touches.

In fiscal year of 2006/7 we assisted in obtaining planning consent for a total of 187 development projects comprising more than 6,200 residential units and, 31 commercial projects including two new supermarkets, new council offices, seven hotels and 19 office/retail units – all with difficult, technical constraints relating to trees and habitat conservation. For more information on our services to the construction industry and the British Standard 5837:2005 ‘Trees in relation to construction – Recommendations’, please download our capabilities statement here. Download PDF

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ACL has over recent years, forged strong and well deserved relationships with many organisations as the foremost supplier of consulting experts to Great Britain’s insurance industry. We are instructed up to expert witness level supporting, where not instructed as a single joint expert (SJE), both plaintiff (claimant) and defendant in these, often abhorrent and terribly unfortunate situations.

Whether working on behalf of local authorities, third party tree owners or homeowners suffering damages, we have never lost a subsidence case to date. Many of our clients or their instructing solicitors have come to us following varying degrees of dissatisfaction with the insurer’s or loss adjuster’s pre contracted/default choice of consultant.

ACL is justifiably proud of our consultants and executives and stake our reputation on the character, experience and efficiency of the team. Via our headquarters and regional offices we are able to offer a pragmatic, efficient and approachable service across England and Wales to a range of insurance markets, including; slip/trip claims, tree failure/personal or property damage, drainage claims and, tree related subsidence claims.

Our team is lead by the executive consultant responsible for legal and expert instruction. ACL has a one hundred percent success rate in the Courts, supporting clients by assisting their legal counsel (solicitors and chambers) in their representation of the client.

If your enquiry pertains to Conservation Area (CA), Tree Preservation Order (TPO) or High Hedge (HH) litigation please contact us as a matter of urgency – stringent time restrictions apply for decision challenges.

For more information on our services to loss adjusters, solicitors and chambers please download our capabilities statement by clicking here. Download PDF

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Q. Why have I been asked to obtain a ‘tree report’?

A. We produce reported advice to lenders in response to instruction, the need for which typically arises as a consequence of the lender (or their advisors) being unable to progress a mortgage application without further investigation into the risk¹ presented by trees to the security² on their loan³.

¹ risk of total tree failure, or a constituent thereof and, concerns surrounding tree related subsidence
² your new house
³ your mortgage

ACL is without question Great Britain’s leading provider of reported advice to lenders and their underwriters pertaining to concerns over trees. We recognise the horrendous time pressures the house purchase system forces onto vendors and buyers. In response to this, ACL have developed the Express Homebuyer Arboricultural Report (EHAR).

One of our research consultants will visit your site/property and undertake their assessment and investigation, collating the data at the office through desk study and produce a report ready for release within 24 hours of instruction. This reporting is comprehensive and addresses every aspect of the lender’s concern, giving you the peace of mind that once instructed, ACL takes care of everything. And it gets better; we have an all inclusive fixed fee for this service which is banded dependent on how far your property is from our nearest regional office.

For more information contact our sales team now via 08450176950 or ehar@arbtech.co.uk.

Trees & the Law

We offer specific advice and services covering common law rights and liabilities, and matters pertaining to: third party owned trees, High Hedges, tree preservation orders (TPO) and your liability in Duty of Care as a tree owner.

ACL have a truly exceptional record with High Hedge and TPO objections, applications and appeals and, we are also the only practice to have appealed against a High Hedge remedial notice in Wales, and won, four times. This arises from our firm policy of only taking on cases we truly believe we can win and from ACL being the only practice who have a consultant specialising in legal and expert duties in respect of High Hedge legislation in both England and Wales (yes, it is different).

Our consultants are masters of tree physiology, morphology and body language. An ACL consultant can read a tree like a book, noting effects symptomatic of decay, stress or pest/disease affliction. We use a standardised series of assessments, progressively more detailed, to determine tree vitality and structural/mechanical integrity that make use of, where applicable, the most advanced decay diagnostic tool on the planet: the Picus Sonic Tomograph. For more information on our approach to risk management and the Picus Sonic Tomograph please download our two page information sheet here. Download PDF

Great Britain has over 300 local authorities and hundreds of other public sector organisations all responsible for their respective corporate estate. ACL has supported many local authorities in the management of their trees through a variety of creative, considered innovations.

We understand the responsibility and the accountability that often is borne by a single individual or small team of people in a local government department for an entire district or borough’s tree population. The management of trees for amenity and their maintenance is often detached from the planning facet; therefore, we excel at supplying local government departments with two very different services.

Planning & Development Control

Tree preservation order services

• Provision of consulting assistance in the determination of tree works applications
• Provision of consulting assistance in the handling of claims made against the Council in respect of tree related subsidence or tree failure
• Supply of consultancy in the review and auditing of present TPO data, leading to Re survey of TPO trees in order to establish a workable database of TPO files leading to a defensible system of management and protection of tree populations
• Expert services in the defence of appeals and public Inquiries

Spatial/environmental planning services

• Provision of consultancy in the determination of data accuracy submitted as part of British Standard 5837:2005 ‘Trees in relation to construction – Recommendations’ requisites
• Provision of formal counsel on matters pertaining to arboricultural method statements (AMS) and other documents (plans and written statements) in support of planning submissions
• Provision of consultancy and consulting assistance in the review and development of supplementary planning guidance documents for ‘trees and development’
• Expert services in the defence of appeals and public Inquiries

Management of the Trees and Woodlands for the Public benefit

Policy, strategy and communications

• Provision of consultancy and consulting assistance in the review and development of department policy and the strategies that implement it, including the supply of consultancy and technical/graphics assistance in the publication of leaflets and website content communicating information to a target audience (general public, private corporations, etc) on issues like tree planting, management of trees, choosing a contractor, etc.

Survey and mapping (GIS)

• Survey planning and estimating consultancy
• Provision of ground surveys using our easily integrated GIS mapping and spatial planning solutions that are tailored to the individual client’s requirements
• Supply of the latest in technology and software developments continually improving efficacy of the survey budget

Tree hazard and tree risk management

• Unique approach to risk management working with the budget and objectives of different authorities to achieve a bespoke solution
• Supply of a defendable strategy enabling the liability of the Council to be minimised and excluded as much as is practicable
• Pragmatic approach to the supply of risk audits of hazardous trees or ‘all vegetation’ surveys, tailored to meet the demands and liabilities of clients, including local government, highways and housing associations.

Contract and project management

• Provision of tree works and site clearance project managers to monitor periodically or randomly the status of contracted or tendered works, reporting to the instructing authority using a workable timeframe and monitoring system – saving money by improving efficacy

Tree owners, domestic and corporate, are wholly and exclusively liable for any failure of trees in their ownership if they do not take all reasonable steps to reduce the risk of harm to an acceptable level. Corporate landowners have a liability in duty of care to ensure that their trees are inspected periodically by competent persons.¹

It follows by the use of simple logic that a corporate landowner with a large tree population under its responsibility, if left unmanaged, has a correspondingly significant liability should any tree fail within that population of perhaps tens or even hundreds of thousands.

Many recent cases in the courts have seen ill prepared landowners prosecuted with severe financial penalties in respect of their failure to recognise and act on this duty. One landmark case in 2006 debated the necessity for inspections, their frequency and the importance of ensuring the inspector is competent to do so. The judgement was awarded in favour of the plaintiff (claimant) resulting in the successful prosecution of a landowner, who though had ensured inspections were undertaken, failed to ensure that the inspector was appropriately qualified to do so.

The commentary of the judgement handed down can be located by clicking here.clicking here. Download PDF

We provide a discrete and reliable service to mitigate and exclude this liability, affording our clients the peace of mind that they have the audit trail and systems in place to present a secure and defendable case should the worst happen.