Conservation

Within the district, many of our villages and towns have a special character and appearance which is created by the arrangement of buildings, trees and other elements of the street scene. These areas are characterised by much much more than just the architectural merit of individual buildings, and as such, they are designated conservation areas.

Conservation areas are designed to offer a degree of protection to such areas and to prevent the unjustified loss of buildings and features which contribute to the collective quality of the area.

Unlike listed buildings, local authorities have the power to designate conservation areas of which the criteria is judged against local and regional importance, rather than its national importance.

A conservation area means that the local authority has extra controls over:

• demolition
• the protection of trees
• minor developments

East Northamptonshire currently has 32 conservation areas which can be view by clicking on the link below:

Conservation Areas in East Northamptonshire

Article 4 Directions

Although conservation areas are given additional planning protection, measures are sometimes taken to withdraw certain categories of development which would otherwise be automatically permitted. This occurs where the external appearance of dwelling houses within an area are an essential part of its character and appearance and may be under threat as a result of certain types of permitted development. In cases like these the local authority may remove permitted development rights by means of an article four direction.

There are four villages to the north of the district that have article four directions applied to them; these are Kings Cliffe, Duddington, Collyweston and Easton on the Hill. The article four directions differ from settlement to settlement and therefore we advise you to check with the council to see whether permission may be needed before carrying out any external alterations to the buildings within the aforementioned areas.