Commercial Tree Service for Commercial Businesses in Exeter

The starting point is usually an inspection of the trees on site, recorded on a simple plan. For each tree the report should note species, approximate size, condition, what lies beneath it and any work recommended with a priority and timescale. Photographs of each tree make later comparisons easier. That record helps spread the cost of work over more than one year and gives the business evidence of a system for managing tree risk, which an insurer or landlord may ask to see.

Typical commercial work includes lifting crowns over car parks and service roads to give clearance for vehicles, removing deadwood over pedestrian routes, cutting back from buildings, gutters and lighting columns, clearing sightlines at junctions, and removing trees that have died or become unsafe. Roots lifting paving are usually better handled by repairing the surface with root-sensitive methods than by cutting major roots, which can destabilise a tree. Where trees overhang a public highway, the highway authority can require branches to be cut back if they obstruct the road or footway.

Working on an open site takes planning. Agree when the work will happen so that parking bays can be coned off and deliveries rerouted, and ask how the crew will manage pedestrians and vehicles, particularly if a mobile elevating work platform or a crane is needed. Weekend or early morning working is common on retail and office sites. The tree surgeon's risk assessment and method statement should cover exclusion zones, lifting operations, noise and the route for the chipper and its vehicle.

Legal protections apply to commercial land as much as to gardens. Check whether any tree is protected by a preservation order or lies in a conservation area, and whether a condition on the original planning permission requires particular trees to be retained or replaced. On larger sites, felling more than a small volume of timber in a calendar quarter can require a felling licence from the Forestry Commission, although exemptions exist, so ask the tree surgeon to confirm the position. Nesting birds and bat roosts must be checked for before work starts.

On leased premises, read the lease before instructing anyone. Landscaping and trees in the shared areas of a business park are often the landlord's responsibility and recovered through the service charge, while trees within a let plot may fall to the occupier. Settling that first avoids paying for work the landlord should arrange, or instructing work on trees you have no right to cut.

Proposals for commercial sites should give a clear specification for each tree, a programme that fits trading hours, a waste carrier registration and the arrangements for removing arisings, evidence of training for the equipment proposed, and public liability cover suited to work beside public areas. For businesses with several sites, ask whether one inspection format and one point of contact can be used across every location.