Whilst TPOs are a legal requirement they may not always be digitised accurately. Users of this data should not assume this data is totally accurate and should consult the specific local authority for more detail before making any decisions
A TPO is made by the Local Authority, under Section 160 of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997, and within the procedures set out in the Town and Country Planning (Tree Preservation Order and Trees in Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Regulations 2010. They are made to protect individual trees, groups of trees or woodlands which have particular amenity value, make a significant contribution to the landscape or townscape or because there may be a potential threat to the trees. In deciding which trees qualify to become protected the local authority must ensure that the trees contribute to the amenity and attractiveness of an area and be under threat in some way. Either individual specimens or groups can be protected in a single Order. More information and guidance on Tree Preservation orders and Trees in conservation can be found in Planning Circular 1/2011. Which provides an overview of the TPO procedures, explaining how the requirements from the Act and Regulations fit together.
Some local authorities capture polygons of tree preservation areas. Others will identify actual trees as point TPOs. Several LAs capture both. We have initially created two separate layers - point and polygon, to represent TPOs. This may show duplication where a point falls within a polygon. We may adapt this rationale and methodology in due course as we know that there is a discrepancy with Registers of Scotland's TPO data.