Improve infrastructure for managing woodlands
Find out how to improve permanent access and infrastructure at woodlands you manage.
Why you should improve access to woodlands
Improving woodland infrastructure can help make woodlands more accessible by road, allowing timber and other forest products to be moved more easily. This helps enable sustainable management of the woodland, including treatment for tree health issues.
The types of infrastructure include:
- extraction tracks for mechanised timber extraction to a transfer point
- haulage roads and turning points
- haulage road entrances or laybys
- profiling and paving timber transfer points and stacking areas
- culverts and other road and track side drainage
- woodland security, such as gates for new entrance points
Before you start
You should get advice from the Forestry Commission on the most appropriate infrastructure for your management plans and whether it would be permanent or temporary.
The conditions of any Statutory Plant Health Notice (SPHN) may require work to start sooner than new infrastructure can be installed. So temporary solutions like skylining or log chutes may have to be prioritised.
You may need to apply for a road closure to access and work on the trees safely. You’ll need to contact your local council to find out how road closures work in your area.
New tracks or roads
New or repositioned tracks require careful route planning, sound construction and regular maintenance to keep them firm and dry, to prevent erosion of track surfaces and to minimise runoff issues. Including cross drains or grass verges will help manage surface runoff and reduce the risk of diffuse pollution.
You should site tracks away from sites of historic interest and scheduled monuments to avoid damage to these features from livestock and machinery movement.
You can minimise impact on the landscape by positioning tracks adjacent to existing boundary features and avoiding routing them across the middle of open fields.
The specification of your track or road needs to meet national legislation, following the construction, design and management (CDM) regulations for forest roads and tracks.
Find out more about how to plan and access tracks and surfaced haulage roads in woodland.
Getting permissions and consents
Before applying for funding to improve access and infrastructure, you must send a description of the work to the local planning authority so it can see if the work can be classified as a permitted development.
Permitted developments do not require full planning permission.
You’ll need full planning permission where you construct a new access from a classified public highway.
You must get consent for the work from the local planning authority (or internal drainage boards within an internal drainage district) if the road crosses a watercourse or uses culverts during construction, use or maintenance. You do not need to send this consent with your application but you will need to submit consents and permissions with your payment claim.
The Forestry Commission will decide whether the work requires consent under the Environmental Impact Assessment (Forestry) Regulations. This is dependent on whether the proposal will have a significant effect on the environment.
You may need to do one or more of the following to get the necessary permissions before you start work:
- apply for consent from Natural England for work on or near a site of special scientific interest (SSSI)
- apply for consent from Historic England for work on or near a scheduled monument
- apply for a licence to disturb protected species
If you’re felling trees to improve access and infrastructure you should check if you need to apply for a felling licence from the Forestry Commission.