Living in a conservation area places some additional restrictions on what you can and can’t do to your property. If you’re a Greenwich resident who lives within a conservation area, you will need to meet stricter planning permission requirements. This is a task that our team can assist you with, helping you to successfully gain approval.
Call 020 8131 2886 to discuss planning permission for conservation areas in Greenwich.
When an area has historic appeal or unique architectural character, it may be designated as a conservation area. This puts additional guidelines and restrictions in place to preserve these features and prevent them from being lost or diluted over time.
The Royal Borough of Greenwich uses conservation areas to protect its architectural heritage. This is a particularly important feature of the local area, as indicated by the designation of the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. By ensuring that new developments don’t detract from the area, future Greenwich residents and visitors can continue to experience them as intended.
The Royal Borough of Greenwich has 23 conservation areas in place, including the very first conservation areas within London. These were designated in January 1968. Greenwich has always taken its architectural heritage seriously, making sure that local buildings and views are protected.
Do you live in one of Greenwich’s conservation areas? If you need assistance with planning permission a member of our team will be happy to assist you. Call 020 8131 2886 or email info@sashwindows.london to tell us your requirements.
Planning guidance is in place for each of the 23 conservation areas, giving locals an understanding of the planning controls that are in place. These controls add restrictions to proposed alterations such as:
In some areas where conservation is a particular concern an Article 4 Direction may be applied. This measure applies additional restrictions that remove permitted development rights such as replacing external doors, windows, or making adjustments to the roof. As a result, planning permission is required for these tasks. In Greenwich, Article 4 Direction applies to the following areas:
The application process for planning permission can be intimidating for inexperienced homeowners, especially when planning controls are in place. The team at Wandsworth Sash Windows are happy to offer professional assistance if you’d like support with seeking planning permission. In fact, we can handle the planning process on your behalf. We have extensive experience completing and submitting these applications and have achieved a 100% success rate when applying within conservation areas. We’ll save you the hassle involved in preparing for your home improvement project, whether you’re hoping to invest in new sash windows or are planning to extend your property.
Unfortunately, it isn’t possible to suggest a precise timeframe for approval, as this can be impacted if there is a backlog of submitted applications. We can, however, provide some rough guidelines based on the 300+ planning applications we have submitted to local planning authorities.
In order to gather information and put the application together, we recommend allowing several weeks. This ensures that everything is in line with the requirements of the conservation area.
The planning authority has to return a decision within this timeframe. However, the countdown won’t start until the application has been checked and has been deemed to be complete with the right information.
As a result, planning authorities can use the validation process to their advantage when struggling with a large backlog. They can also request additional information to extend the decision date further. These factors are out of the applicant’s control and, unfortunately, must be accepted as part of the planning process.
Due to the historic nature of the area, there are many listed buildings within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. These fall into two categories –locally listed buildings and nationally listed buildings.
These buildings are listed because of their local importance, even though they may not be nationally recognised. There are more than 500 buildings on the list, which is open for submissions from individuals, groups, and societies. These buildings do not have additional restrictions to comply with, only the local planning controls. Property owners may find that the local heritage status of the building is considered in applications, but this is not guaranteed.
Buildings on the National Heritage List for England (NHLE) must go through a specialist process known as Listed Building Consent (LBC) when seeking permission for any alterations. This applies to internal and external adjustments and is an in-depth process that will take longer than standard planning permission. It will take around three weeks to put an application together and the process will take at least 12-18 weeks. It is also common to require more than one application to receive approval under such strict criteria. The same process is followed regardless of the scale of the proposed works.
The Listed Building Consent process applies the strictest planning restrictions to the building in question. As a result, the process is highly complex and requires lots of back and forth with the planning authority, particularly as additional information can be required as the application progresses. Wandsworth Sash Windows will be happy to oversee this process and manage expectations about what permission can realistically be obtained. We will discuss your options with you and will advise you on the route that is most likely to be successful. Read our guide to Listed Building services to learn more about the support we can provide.
If you’d like assistance with a planning application, our team will be happy to offer their expertise. Call 020 8131 2886 or email info@sashwindows.london to discuss your requirements and start the process.
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