A Norfolk council is urging people to get permission before felling trees on their land, after a 62-year-old man was handed a court bill of nearly £36,000.

Owen Hanbury appeared in court yesterday and pleaded guilty to felling 11 trees in a conservation area in Green Lane North, Thorpe End, near Norwich, in November 2011. Nineteen other similar charges were dismissed.

Hanbury was fined £2,000 for each felled tree, totalling £22,000, plus a £15 surcharge, and he must pay costs of £13,833.13.

The prosecution was brought by Broadland council which requires six weeks' notice before anyone carries out work to trees in conservation areas. Permission to chop down trees protected under tree preservation orders must also be sought from the local authority.

Hanbury, of Constitution Hill, Norwich, who failed to get permission to fell the trees, changed his pleas to guilty before the trial was due to start.

Jonathan Goodman, prosecuting, said that Hanbury had bought a property in Thorpe End for his daughter a few months before the incident.

Hanbury planned to cut down the trees in the garden of the property and then replace them with better trees.

But he was spotted felling the trees, which included cypress and holly, by a member of staff from Broadland council.

Mr Goodman said: 'He showed a cavalier disregard for the requirements under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. Eleven guilty pleas adequately reflects the criminality involved.'

Simon Nicholls, for Hanbury, said: 'He was unaware that the trees were in a conservation area, which precluded him from doing what he did.

'He thought he was getting rid of trees that were either dying or in a poor state.

'The plan was to remove the trees and replace them with better trees approved by the RSPB.

'He wanted to create a nice woodland area and try and make the area better. His daughter was hopefully going to move in to the property when it was completed. There's no suggestion from the Crown that the trees cut down have not been replaced with better trees.'

Mr Nicholls said that Hanbury's plans had been supported by Great and Little Plumstead parish council, and one councillor was said to be distraught to learn that the case had come to court.

District judge Peter Veits told Hanbury that the maximum he could have fined him was £20,000 for each tree felled.

He said: 'You should have been aware that it was a conservation area, and you did not seek approval of the local authority, and you went ahead and cut down the trees. Mature trees cannot be replaced after they are cut down.'

Afterwards, Mr Nicholls said on Hanbury's behalf: 'Mr Hanbury felt the sentence passed by the district judge was fair and reasonable in all the circumstances.

'He had not deliberately set out to break the law and he has stated throughout that he would replace any trees with new specimens that would be healthier and more attractive.'

Afterwards, a spokesman for Broadland council said: 'A large number of trees were felled in a garden within the Thorpe End conservation area without the council receiving any notification from Mr Hanbury, the owner.

'Conservation areas have special architectural or historic interest and are designated by the council in order to protect their character.

'We would advise that before you carry out works on any trees, you contact the council beforehand to check for tree preservation orders or conservation areas and what procedures need to be followed.

'If you plan to undertake works on any trees over 7.5cm in diameter, measured at 1.5metres above ground level (or 10cm if thinning to help the growth of trees) within a conservation area, you are required to give the local planning authority six weeks prior notice. This is to give an opportunity to consider whether a TPO should be made in respect of the tree.

'The penalties for not following the correct procedure can be a fine of up to £20,000 per tree as by default, any tree of 7.5cm diameter at 1.5m above ground level is afforded the same protection as trees covered by a TPO.'