New Conservation Area Rules - Confused!

[malcolm]

On October 1st 2013 Conservation Area Consent seems to have been abolished. The internet says that planning permission is now required for demolition of buildings within conservation areas, but doesn't say much about what to do with the other things that used to require consent. Previously being in a conservation area was like being listed on the outside.

I wanted to fill in a form to ask if it is OK to remove the magnolia paint from my exterior brickwork. There doesn't appear to be any form anymore. Do I need to apply for full planning permission for that these days or is it no longer a requirement to ask?

Any references to more useful info than I've found would be much appreciated.

 

[billybuntus]

Hi Malcolm,

I'm not sure of the context of your property but I live in a conservation area. I've redone the entire front of my house over a period of 5 months. It's not back to stone from render.

A local planning officer keeps saying I'm doing a good job. I've not written to the council or engaged them at all. He's merely a passing person who happens to work for planning.

The day I have to fill in a form to remove some paint from brickwork will be the day I die. I would just get on with it.

 

[MatthewC]

I wanted to fill in a form to ask if it is OK to remove the magnolia paint from my exterior brickwork.

Just how big is your magnolia? The definition of a tree here is 15cm girth measured at 1.5m high so if your tree does not meet that then it's not a tree, can't be TPO'd and you can just chop it down.

 

[88v8]

I wanted to fill in a form to ask if it is OK to remove the magnolia paint from my exterior brickwork.

Just how big is your magnolia? The definition of a tree here is 15cm girth measured at 1.5m high so if your tree does not meet that then it's not a tree, can't be TPO'd and you can just chop it down.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Antique-Old-Small-Round-Reading-Glasses-Spectacles-With-Case-/181565172509?pt=UK_Health_Beauty_VisionGlasses_Lenses_SM&hash=item2a4620ab1d

Is that what's known as a non secateur?

 

[malcolm]

Paint not plant.

I'll likely just go ahead. If I were planning to repaint I'd still have to strip the existing paint off as it has failed and the wall needs re-pointing behind. That would be a like for like repair. I'll check with the paint stripping people to see what they normally do.

I had some test bits of wall stripped last week. The trick appears to be to use a hot water pressure washer which takes the paint off very efficiently and in small bits. Their cold water test gave the same results as mine.

 

[Penners]

Is that what's known as a non secateur?

**GROAN**




:wink:

 

[parkview094]

This is one of my great bugbears - Conservation area consent. Specifically, I actually have nothing against it, but seemingly in our area, many people are not aware of the controls or choose to just ignore them with little or no effect.

External Painting requires full planning permission (approval) in our area. Details of the controls and processes are easily available on our local council website, although I'm sure a call to the local planning office would also provide suitable guidance.

I think your profile indicates you're in Bedford. They have a link to their controls available here: http://www.bedford.gov.uk/environme...9144dd-f525-43cf-8673-83d841aae477&version=-1

..section 4.5.6 includes: "Rendering or painting any exterior masonry or brickwork".

I suspect in reality, this all depends on your level of appetite to risk and the likelihood of a neighbour objecting to your repainting!

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Since Shimizu back in the 1980s (a House of Lords decision on what "demolition" means), Conservation Area Consent has only been required for the complete demolition of a building in a conservation area.
All the other things that get mentioned every time this comes up - extensions, stone cladding, etc etc, require (and have required for years) Planning Permission in the cases where they aren't Permitted Development, which includes in Conservation Areas.
Further restrictions on altering windows and so on (which usually are permitted development, even in conservation areas) can be imposed through the use of an Article 4 Direction but they tend to be few and far between.
So all the recent change has done is to abolish Conservation Area consent for the single thing it used to cover, and replace it with a need for Planning Permission. Everything else remains as before.

 

[garnett]

Hi Gareth

I think there was some change in the front wall PD for demolition this year as well? I'm not at my desk but will have a check.

Garnett

 

[garnett]

This is what I was aluding to:

Demolishing a boundary fence, wall or other means of enclosure is permitted development under class B, Part 31 of Schedule 2 of the General Permitted Development Order. However, on 1 October 2013 this provision was amended to exclude boundary walls in conservation areas.

This means that if the owner of a building in a conservation area wants to demolish, in whole or in part,

“any gate, fence, wall or other means of enclosure”.

This means, in conservation areas, building owners must first seek planning permission before they can demolish a party wall or party fence wall, or even a garden fence, even if all the other works are permitted development.

Garnett