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Swale Local Heritage List

The Local Heritage List does not provide any additional planning controls but buildings and green spaces on the list have the status of heritage assets and their conservation is an objective of the NPPF. The inclusion of a building or structure on the list will be a material consideration that we will take into account when considering planning applications.

A Local Heritage List:

  • raises awareness of an area’s local heritage assets and their importance to local distinctiveness
  • informs developers, owners, council officers and members about buildings within the local authority boundary that are desirable to retain and protect
  • provides guidance and specialist advice to owners to help protect the character and setting of those buildings, structures,sites and landscapes
  • helps the council in its decision making when discussing proposals and determining planning applications
  • records the nature of the local historic environment more accurately

For more information and a description of local heritage lists, visit Historic England.

As a priority task set out in our recently adopted borough-wide Heritage Strategy, there is now a commitment to develop a local heritage list, and in light of this, we are consulting on the list of criteria to use for listing local heritage.

Ref: A Heritage Strategy for Swale, Appendix 1, Action Plan 1 – (1April 2020 to 31 March 2023) Item 6, page 4

The criteria to be used in assessing buildings for inclusion in a Local Heritage List is based on age and integrity, historic and architectural interest, with particular local emphasis. All candidate buildings would need to be considered against these criteria and consistency applied across the Borough.

Various building types within Swale that can be considered for local heritage listing

The Cinema at the junction of High Street and Crown Quay Lane, Sittingbourne showing the Art Deco style which makes it eligible for inclusion in the Local Heritage List.
The Cinema at the junction of High Street and Crown Quay Lane, Sittingbourne showing the Art Deco style which makes it eligible for inclusion in the Local Heritage List.
2.Aerial view of the viaduct carrying the Sittingbourne to Kemsley Light Industrial Railway, Milton Regis
At over a 100 years old the Kemsley Light Railway Viaduct is a lasting legacy of the industrial railway that once linked the paper mills at Sittingbourne and Kemsley to Ridham Dock. At about a kilometre long, with six bridges and 118 spans, the reinforced concrete viaduct is iconic in narrow gauge railway heritage, making it eligible for inclusion in the local heritage List.
3.View of War Memorial Gardens, Faversham
Located next to Faversham Cross, The memorial garden bears 8 tablets bearing the names of  WW1 and WW2 fallen. Its setting within an enclosed green space  and historic association makes it eligible for inclusion in the local heritage list.

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