Roofers in Cliftonville
1.2 road miles from Margate. Slate, clay tile, parapets and tall stacks across eight conservation areas, each one checked against its boundary before any work is planned.
- Thanet planningCliftonville planning decisions rest with Thanet District Council.
- Designated 2015Ethelbert and Athelstan Road area, designated 20 January 2015.
- Thanet inspectsThanet's own Building Control team, 01843 577522.
Clifftop stacks, Northdown parapets and eight boundaries
Tall stacks
Thanet's Clifftop appraisal notes tall stacks remain in a good number of places, so every stack and flashing gets a close look.
Hidden gutters
Thanet's Northdown Road appraisal talks of parapets screening roofs from view, so the gutter behind each one is checked from above.
Eight edges
Eight conservation areas lie within about 0.75 km of the centre, each with its own boundary and its own designation date.
Cliftonville East and West
Two wards, two churches and a boundary map to read first
| Council | Thanet District Council |
|---|---|
| Building control | Thanet District Council's own Building Control team |
| Scaffold and skip licences | Kent County Council |
| Conservation area | Dalby Square; Margate; Ethelbert Road and Athelstan Road Cliftonville; Clifftop; Clifton Place and Grotto Gardens; Edgar Road and Sweyn Road; Norfolk Road, Warwick Road and Surrey Road; Northdown Road, designated 20 January 2015 |
| From Margate | 1.2 road miles, about 4 min |
| Usual residents, Census 2021 | East ward 6,439; West ward 9,927 |
| Grade II, Church of England | Church of St Paul, first listed 14 September 2010 |
| Grade II, Methodist | St Stephen's Methodist Church, first listed 9 November 1981 |
Cliftonville is split across two Thanet wards, and the conservation areas around it were designated in separate rounds, from 1978 to 2016. The roof survey starts with the map, then the list entries for any church nearby.
Sources: ONS Census 2021, Thanet District Council, Kent County Council, OSRM road routing.
Cliftonville, area by area
Cliftonville roofs across eight conservation areas, two churches and the streets where the scaffold goes
Three chapters on what Thanet's appraisals say about the roofs here, how the conservation area dates fit together, and the church, scaffold and weather facts behind a job.
Chapter 01 of 03
What the Clifftop appraisal says about stacks and slates
Cliftonville lies 1.2 road miles north-east of Margate, about 4 minutes by road, and the council has described its roofs in print. Thanet District Council's appraisal for the Clifftop conservation area says the roof materials there are quite mixed, with red clay tiles and natural slate among them, and that tall chimney stacks remain in a good number of places. Its appraisal for the Northdown Road area speaks of roofs that are slated or tiled, with parapets (the low walls that rise above the eaves) screening many of them from view, and it notes some covered with fishscale slates, the short rounded ones laid in overlapping bands. The national planning dataset puts eight conservation areas within about 0.75 km of the centre.
Those lines work as a list of places to look. A tall stack takes the wind on every face, so the brickwork, the flaunching (the mortar cap that holds the pots in place) and the lead flashings where the stack meets the slope are checked before the slates around them. Where a parapet hides the roof, the gutter behind it and the outlet that clears it are the parts most likely to fail out of sight, so we look from above and never from the pavement alone. Our chimney repairs page explains how a stack is assessed.
Mixed materials mean mixed repairs. A clay tile that has slipped on one slope and a cracked slate on the next are different jobs with different fixings, and a short run of fishscale slates cannot be patched from a bundle of ordinary rectangular ones. We match what is on the roof where we can, say so plainly when a match is hard to find, and show you the proposal before anything goes up. The slate roofing page covers how slates are fixed, and lead roofing covers the flashings and parapet linings that go with them.
Tall stacks and parapets also decide how the roof is reached. A scaffold lift beside a stack gives a safe place to work and lets the whole flashing be seen at once, which tells you more than a ladder and a quick look. We note each stack, parapet and outlet on the way round, take photos of every slope and send the set to you before the work is agreed.
Chapter 02 of 03
From Dalby Square to Northdown Road, area by area
Thanet's designation table lists the Cliftonville areas one by one. Dalby Square dates from 15 July 2010 and the Ethelbert Road and Athelstan Road Cliftonville area from 20 January 2015. Clifton Place and Grotto Gardens, Clifftop, Edgar Road and Sweyn Road, Norfolk Road, Warwick Road and Surrey Road, and Northdown Road were all designated on 20 October 2016. The wider Margate area, designated on 7 February 1978 and extended on 7 July 1994, also reaches into the national dataset's eight. Across the district Thanet counts 27 conservation areas, so knowing which of them holds your road is the first answer a survey gives.
Each of these is article 2(3) land under the General Permitted Development Order, which takes away some of the extensions a house may add without an application. The conditions for roof windows and the other additions are set out in the roof window planning guide. Where the job is a repair or a fresh covering, section 55 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 is the more useful test, as it carves out any work that leaves a building looking materially the same from outside, so it never counts as development. Thanet's conservation-area page adds that a job matching what is already on the roof is less likely to call for a planning application, which is why a faithful repair is the easier route. Anything that changes the look of a slope is a different conversation, and it gets raised at the survey rather than after the quote.
| Area | Designated |
|---|---|
| Dalby Square | 15 July 2010 |
| Ethelbert Road and Athelstan Road Cliftonville | 20 January 2015 |
| Clifton Place and Grotto Gardens | 20 October 2016 |
| Clifftop | 20 October 2016 |
| Edgar Road and Sweyn Road | 20 October 2016 |
| Norfolk Road, Warwick Road and Surrey Road | 20 October 2016 |
| Northdown Road | 20 October 2016 |
Source: Thanet District Council, conservation areas page
If your address is a flat or a maisonette, the householder rules do not apply. Under the Order neither a flat nor a block that holds flats counts as a dwellinghouse, so any change to how the roof looks starts with Thanet District Council. Where a converted house has several owners, the first question is whether the roof belongs to a freeholder, a management company or the flat owner, and we put it before booking a visit.
Article 4 directions are a separate layer. Thanet's list of directions names the Ramsgate area, its marina extension and Pegwell, and none of the Cliftonville areas appears there. Councils can make new directions, so Thanet District Council is asked to confirm the position for a given address before the outside of a house is altered or priced.
Chapter 03 of 03
Two listed churches, the scaffold licence and the weather
Two listed churches stand in Cliftonville, and they follow different consent routes. The Church of St Paul is Grade II, first listed on 14 September 2010, and the Church of England uses it for worship, so a faculty, and not listed building consent, governs works to it. St Stephen's Methodist Church is Grade II as well, first listed on 9 November 1981, and while Methodist worship continues there, that church's own system applies. For either, the route is agreed with whoever looks after the building before a scaffold is booked.
The scaffold is the part of a job the street sees first. Any scaffold on a Cliftonville footpath or road must be covered by a licence under section 169 of the Highways Act 1980, issued by Kent County Council as the highway authority, whose guidance leaves the application to the scaffolders putting up the tube. The fee for 2026 to 2027 is £52 per week, the application needs 5 working days' notice, the applicant must hold public liability insurance of £5 million or above, and a site inspection can be charged at £78 if the council decides one is needed.
Leaving a skip on the road takes a different permit, again from Kent County Council, at £45 per week for 2026 to 2027, booked 5 working days before delivery, with the skip capped at 5 metres by 2. Waste is planned around that permit, so rotten battens (the thin timber rails a covering is fixed to) and torn underlay leave on the day they come off, and the road is left as we found it.
Cliftonville sits about half a kilometre from the shore. Cliftonville's weather figures come from the Met Office station at Manston, 1991 to 2020: annual rainfall near 613 mm, a 10-metre mean wind of 9.86 knots (11.21 in January), 110.05 days with 1 mm or more of rain and 21.43 days of air frost. Those are Manston averages, not a Cliftonville reading. Cupa's fixing advice grades tall buildings and those on slopes, hills or the coast for greater exposure, which is why fixings on a Cliftonville roof come from a BS 5534 calculation for the site and are never borrowed from the last job. A stack or a gable end standing proud of its neighbours is where that matters most.
A stack and parapet job, in order
Look from above
Stacks, parapets and gutters are checked, and you get photos of every slope.
Match the record
Your road is set against Thanet's map, plus the list entry for any church.
Scaffold and skip
The scaffolder applies to Kent County Council; a skip needs its own permit.
Repair and clear
Flashings, flaunching and slates are fixed, you hear from us each day, and every offcut leaves with us.
10-Year workmanship guarantee. In writing
Around Cliftonville
Cliftonville and its neighbours along Thanet's north shore
Margate's own conservation area lies within 0.75 km of Cliftonville's centre, and both places follow one Thanet route for planning, building control and Kent County Council highway permits, as do Westbrook, Garlinge, St Peter's and Westgate-on-Sea.
Cliftonville parapets, boundaries and church roofs
What gets checked on a Cliftonville roof hidden behind a parapet?
The gutter behind the parapet, its outlet and the lead lining or flashing where the roof meets the wall. Thanet's Northdown Road appraisal talks of parapets screening roofs from the street, and a blocked outlet behind one can fail without showing from the pavement. We look from above, take photos of the gutter, outlets and lining, and send you the pictures so you see what we see before any work is agreed.
Which Cliftonville conservation area is my road in?
There are eight within about 0.75 km of the centre, including Dalby Square, Clifftop and Northdown Road, each with its own boundary and date in Thanet's table. We set your address against the map during the survey and tell you which area applies. Thanet District Council has the final word, and its planning team can confirm the boundary for a specific house.
Which consent route applies to a Cliftonville church roof?
It depends on the denomination. The Church of St Paul is Grade II and the Church of England uses it for worship, so a faculty is the route. St Stephen's Methodist Church is Grade II, and its consent route depends on its present use. We ask the people who look after the building first, and the scaffold waits until the route is agreed.
Whose licence does a scaffold on a Cliftonville pavement need?
Kent County Council's, as highway authority, under section 169 of the Highways Act 1980. The licence is lodged by the scaffolders themselves, 5 working days ahead, and they must hold public liability insurance of £5 million or above. The charge is £52 per week for 2026 to 2027, and a site inspection can add £78. Kent County Council highways take pre-application calls on 03000 41 81 81.
Which council checks Building Regulations on a Cliftonville re-roof?
Thanet District Council's own Building Control team, on 01843 577522. Thanet sends owners to the Planning Portal's Interactive House for the answer. Two limits apply: under 25 per cent of the building envelope and under 50 per cent of the roof. A replacement material adding 15 per cent or more to the old covering's weight needs approval too, so any change to a heavier material is weighed up before it is ordered.
Send photos of your Cliftonville stack
Message us a photo of the stack, parapet or slope, or book a visit; a single written total is sent once we have surveyed it.