Article 4 directions in Stroud: do they cover roofs?

Government planning guidance explains that an article 4 direction lets the Secretary of State or the local planning authority withdraw named permitted development rights across a set area. Those rights are the jobs you may do without a planning application, within limits. An Article 4 direction removes some, so a job that normally needs no application suddenly does.

A condition on a planning permission can remove the same rights, on a newer estate for instance, so a direction is not the only way a home loses them. Check your own address instead of guessing from what a neighbour did.

The district has 41 conservation areas, and Article 4 directions apply in only five of them.

• the area at Wotton Under Edge
• the area at Bisley
• the area at Frampton on Severn
• the Stroud Top of Town area
• the Stroud Town Centre area

According to the council these directions take certain permitted development rights from some houses within the area. Under an Article 4(2) direction the controls bite only where the proposed works are on faces of a house facing the street or a public space. Two neighbours can therefore be treated differently, depending on which face the work is on.

Other conservation areas, Painswick, Nailsworth and Dursley among them, are not on the council's list. Rules still apply in a conservation area, so that is not a clear run. It only means no Article 4 direction is listed there.

For two of the five, the council's conservation area pages give much of the answer. The Bisley direction, made in 1998, covers additions or alterations to the roof and any other alteration to a roof slope that fronts a highway or public open space, and it also covers putting up, altering or taking down a chimney. The Wotton Under Edge direction, made in 1993, lists roof additions and other alterations to the roof among the works it controls, for houses on named streets. For Frampton on Severn, whose direction dates from 2008, and for the two Stroud town areas, ask the council what each direction covers rather than assume an answer.

The council advises checking with the planning department. Sound advice for any roof change in one of the five areas, including ones that sound minor: another covering, a new roof window, a chimney altered or taken down, or rooflights on the front slope.

Putting back an identical covering does not normally count as development, as the house looks no different once finished. That is the general rule, and an Article 4 direction is a specific rule laid over it. Ask the council to state the position in writing for your address and the face of the building concerned.

A short email to Stroud District Council's planning team is usually enough, and it leaves a record. A phone call can answer a quick question, but follow it with an email that repeats what you were told, so that the reply is dated and you can show it to a lender, a buyer or a surveyor later. Say which of the five areas you are in, give the address and describe the work in plain terms. A useful message names the elevation, whether it faces the road or open space, and whether the building is listed.

1. State the address and which face of the roof the work is on.
2. Describe the covering now and the covering you want.
3. Say whether a roof window, dormer or chimney work is involved.
4. Ask whether an Article 4 direction removes any rights for this work.
5. Ask for the reply in writing and keep it with your papers.

Allow some time for the reply before you book a start date, since a scaffold slot and materials order are easier to move before they are fixed than after. If the answer is that permission is needed, you apply before work starts. Our page on planning permission for roof work in Stroud District covers the wider picture. If the answer is that no application is needed, keep the email. It is the sort of paper a buyer's solicitor may ask for later.

These are places where the roofscape is part of why the area was designated. The two Stroud areas centre on older streets where roofs are seen from the road. Wotton Under Edge and Bisley are older settlements where stone and clay coverings are part of the street scene. Frampton on Severn is known for its village green and the buildings around it.

A roof change can alter the look of a whole terrace or green, which is why councils take an interest. Matching the existing covering, in material, colour and size, tends to keep a project simple. On older roofs we keep to the materials already there, which leaves little to argue about with the planning team.

Before pricing a job in one of these areas, we ask the same questions and record the answers. Our survey includes photographs of your roof and a note of its covering, which gives the planners something concrete to look at. The quote that follows names the covering on each slope, and if the job is notifiable, building control hears from us and you hear the consent position beforehand.

Unfamiliar words on a planning reply can slow things down, so our roofing terms glossary explains ridge, verge, hip and the rest. If a job goes wrong later and you need to raise it, our page on steps to take if you have a roofer complaint sets out the order to follow.

The finished work carries a 10-year workmanship guarantee in writing. Call 01453 933613 or use the enquiry form. For our full range of services, return to the Supreme Roofing home page.