This link goes to The Times of 23rd March and concerns a homeowner in Canford Cliffs, Poole, who ignored a TPO (tree preservation order) on his 42-foot oak tree and instead he virtually destroyed it by chopping off 12ft-long branches – all for the purpose of allowing sunlight to the back of his property and on to his new ‘Juliet’ balcony.
So apart from ignoring the TPO and facing the consequences with the council of that; apart from what must have been an extremely dangerous operation to take down 12-foot limbs, the homeowner has been fined:
- In what officials claim is the first case of its kind, a court has ordered the homeowner to reimburse the taxpayer the amount perceived to be the increase to the value of his £1M home, having cut down his tree. In this instance, the increase was found to be £21,000 and this is what he had to repay as proceeds of crime.
- In addition, had to pay £15,000 legal costs
- And the actual fine of £1,200
- So a total of £37,200