Swale's Conservation Areas

There are now 51 conservation areas in Swale following the designation of Rodmersham Church Street Conservation Area earlier this year. A conservation area is an area of special architectural or historic interest, the character or appearance of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance. The special character of these areas does not come from the quality of their buildings alone. The area as a whole, including historic layout of roads, paths and boundaries; characteristic building and paving materials; a particular 'mix' of building uses; landscape and tree cover in public and private spaces all make up the familiar local scene. Conservation area designation is a way of protecting these special parts of the borough and ensuring that any new development is sensitive to their historic character. It is not about preventing new development.

The 51 conservation areas in Swale Borough range from the outstanding timespan of buildings present within Faversham, the highly planned layout and cleverly engineered qualities of the former Royal Naval dockyard at Sheerness to the numerous picturesque villages and hamlets in the Borough, many of which display distinct Kentish vernacular qualities in their individual, and groups of buildings.  Such a legacy requires special attention and the Council's aim is to preserve and wherever possible, enhance the character of each and every one of its 51 Conservation Areas.

You can find out if your property falls within a Conservation Area by looking the table below, which provides a map for each area, or by using the Borough Council’s Interactive Map tool.

If you live in a Conservation Area and you are considering making alterations to your property, please view the advice on the Planning Portal website and by referring to the Borough Council's  Conservation Area guidance.

Forthcoming public consultations

Please note that the review work on Sheerness (Marine Town) Conservation Area and Sheerness (Mile Town) Conservation Area referenced in an earlier update to this web page, is still progressing, and it is anticipated that the review documents will be published for public consultation in the near future

Swale’s existing conservation areas

What does designation mean?

Conservation areas enjoy special protection under the law. The Council has extra controls over demolition, minor developments and the protection of trees. Within a conservation area you will need to apply for planning permission for total or substantial demolition of any building and may also need permission to carry out minor alterations or extensions such as roof alterations or erecting dormer windows or satellite dishes. Additionally you must give the Council six weeks notice, in writing, before any work is carried out to prune or fell a tree in a conservation area. For design guidance for new development and alterations and extensions to existing properties within conservation areas in Swale Borough, please see the Council’s local planning guidance on Conservation Area. Please note that whilst this guidance note is now a little dated, the majority of the content is still valid and useful. The Council intend to update this guidance note in the near future to support the work of its adopted Borough-wide Heritage Strategy.

Article 4 directions

For information on Article 4 Directions generally, and the Article 4 Directions specific to Swale Borough, please click here.

Conservation area review and appraisal

Local planning authorities are required to review their Conservation Areas from time to time to ensure that they still retain the special character and appearance that warrants an additional level of planning control through the Conservation Area designation, and assuming this is the case, to see whether any changes are needed in the way in which each respective Conservation Area is managed. Public consultation is required when a local planning authority wishes to designate a new Conservation Area, de-designate an existing Conservation Area, alter the boundaries of an existing Conservation Area, or it seeks to introduce additional control in a Conservation Area by means of a special mechanism called an Article 4 Direction. Public consultation is also required when character appraisal and management strategy/plan documents are produced for particular Conservation Areas to help ensure that the documents properly capture the key characteristics of the area that lend it a special character, that the issues affecting the special character and appearance of the area have been correctly identified, and that the management strategy/plan put forward to address these issues is appropriate.

As a key element of the Council’s recently adopted borough-wide Heritage Strategy, there is now a commitment to reviewing all of the borough’s conservation areas on a rolling basis. A programme for the review of all 50 current conservation areas has not been set out.  Instead, the Council will be setting out a timetable for the review of groups of conservation areas when setting out each 3-year Action Plan for the adopted Heritage Strategy. The conservation areas to be reviewed in the initial 3-year Action Plan (2020 – 2023) are focussed on those conservation areas deemed to be at risk due to deterioration of their special qualities (principally through incremental negative change) and/or facing significant development pressure within or adjacent to their boundaries. You can view the Heritage Strategy’s initial 3-year Action Plan by clicking here (PDF 1MB ). For more information on conservation areas at risk, please visit the Swale’s Heritage at Risk web page and the Historic England web page on Heritage at Risk: Conservation Areas.

Designating conservation areas

The Council's prime consideration when designating a conservation area is the character of the area, rather than that of individual buildings. The character of an area might be defined by the historic layout of property boundaries and thoroughfares; its particular 'mix' of uses; characteristic materials; appropriate scaling and detailing of contemporary buildings; the quality of advertisements, shop fronts, street furniture and hard and soft surfaces; and by views and vistas along streets and between buildings.

There is no standard specification for Conservation Areas. They may be large or small; they may embrace whole town centres or may cover squares, terraces, village centres and smaller groups of buildings.

Once conservation area status has been granted, the area will appear in a local land charge search.