Roofers in Tankerton
16.1 road miles from Margate. Slate, tile, flat and lead roof work for Tankerton homes, looked at first and priced as one written total once you have seen photos of your own roof.
- Planning: CanterburyCanterbury City Council decides planning here.
- Three conservation areasThree conservation areas within 0.75 km.
- STG building controlSTG Building Control Partnership, Rochester.
Three area boundaries, a Rochester desk and a slate maker's rule
Three areas
Church Street, Tankerton and the area around Whitstable Station and the old railway all fall within 0.75 km of the centre.
Rochester checks
Building Regulations for a Tankerton address sit with the STG partnership at Rochester, a separate desk from the planning team.
Cupa's grading
Cupa, the slate maker, grades coastal buildings with higher exposure, so a fixing schedule is drawn up for every site.
Tankerton, west of Margate
What the Tankerton ward and its boundaries add up to
| Council | Canterbury City Council |
|---|---|
| Building control | STG Building Control Partnership |
| Scaffold and skip licences | Kent County Council |
| Conservation area | Church Street (Whitstable); Tankerton; Canterbury and Whitstable Railway and Whitstable Station |
| Population, 2021 | 3,527 (Tankerton ward) |
| From Margate | 16.1 road miles, about 26 min |
| Usual residents, Tankerton ward | 3,527, Census 2021 |
| Listed entries within 500 m | 1, National Heritage List |
| Environment Agency flood zone | 3, within about 250 m |
The Tankerton ward held 3,527 usual residents at the 2021 Census, and Hasted's 1799 Survey of Kent already named Tankerton alongside six copperas-houses near the sea shore. Today the village sits in Canterbury City Council's area.
Sources: ONS Census 2021, Canterbury City Council, Kent County Council, OSRM road routing.
Tankerton, area by area
Roof work in Tankerton, from three conservation areas to the scaffold outside the door
What three area boundaries, the STG building control route and a Kent County Council licence mean for a Tankerton re-roof, in three chapters.
Chapter 01 of 03
Three conservation areas inside one 0.75 km circle
Tankerton sits 16.1 road miles west of Margate, about 26 minutes by road, and the first question about a roof here is which lines on the map it falls inside. National planning data places 3 conservation areas within about 0.75 km of Tankerton's centre: Church Street (Whitstable), Tankerton itself, and the Canterbury and Whitstable Railway area that includes Whitstable Station. Canterbury City Council counts 97 conservation areas across its district, so three is a small slice of a long list, yet these are the ones near enough to matter for a Tankerton address.
Standing close to a boundary is not the same as standing inside it, and one street can be cut by a line. Your address goes over the council's conservation area map before pricing. A conservation area is article 2(3) land under the General Permitted Development Order, which limits what a house there may build onto its roof without first applying. For roof windows and side slopes, our roof window planning guide holds the conditions. Whether an Article 4 direction touches your street is Canterbury City Council's to say, and we ask it.
Repair is another question. Under section 55 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, a job that leaves how a building looks from outside unaltered is not development at all, so putting back slipped slates in the same pattern is repair and not a planning matter. A new colour, covering or profile changes that look, and the question then is whether permitted development covers it, which for a house it normally does unless an Article 4 direction says otherwise. Canterbury City Council's own page puts flats and maisonettes outside permitted development altogether, so on a converted Tankerton house any change to the outside appearance goes to the council as an application.
The National Heritage List places one listed building within 500 metres of the centre. Where a building is listed, section 7 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 requires listed building consent whenever work would alter its character, and the roof is usually a large part of that character. Canterbury City Council decides that consent. If your house is the listed one, or stands beside it, say so when you call and we read the entry before anyone climbs a ladder. On older houses we cut and fix slate roofing and chimney work to match what is already there.
Chapter 02 of 03
Why Tankerton building control runs through Rochester
Planning belongs to Canterbury City Council, but building control for a Tankerton address is run by STG. Canterbury's page tells applicants they will usually apply through its building control partner, and STG presents itself as a partnership providing local authority building control in Kent on behalf of Canterbury City Council and three other councils, Gravesham, Medway and Swale. The partnership works from Eastgate House on Rochester High Street (ME1 1EW), and the number is 01634 331133. That is where a Tankerton owner or a contractor sends a building control application.
The two systems ask different things of one roof. Planning asks whether the outside may change appearance. Building control asks whether the roof, as built, satisfies the Building Regulations in respect of strength, fire and energy use. Neither Canterbury City Council nor STG publishes a re-roofing percentage on its pages, so the Planning Portal yardstick is the one we explain: a re-roof is normally fine without an application while it touches under 25 per cent of the total building envelope and under 50 per cent of the roof.
Myth
Planning permission and Building Regulations approval are the same thing.FactCanterbury City Council decides planning and STG handles building control here, so a job can need either, both or neither.
Myth
No published percentage means no limit on how much roof can be replaced.FactThe Planning Portal test still applies: under 25 per cent of the building envelope and under 50 per cent of the roof.
Source: Planning Portal, re-roofing and Building Regulations
Weight is the other trigger. A new covering that adds 15 per cent or more to the loading of the old one needs approval, says the Planning Portal, and so does a covering that would perform very differently from the old one if the roof caught fire. Approved Document A puts the threshold at an increase of more than 15 per cent. Trading a light covering for a heavy one on an ageing frame is the case where the Planning Portal suggests having a structural engineer or surveyor inspect the timbers first. The frame, not the covering, is what carries that extra load.
When a job does need approval, you can go to STG or to a registered building control approver; private building control existed long before approvers were registered from 6 April 2024. Which route suits your job is something we talk through when the written price follows the survey. If the roof meets a neighbour's wall, the question belongs with a party wall surveyor and not with building control, and you hear that at the survey, not after the scaffold is up. A chimney breast shared with next door is the usual example, since two months' notice is needed for work on a party wall.
Chapter 03 of 03
Scaffold licences, skip permits and Manston weather for Tankerton
Scaffolding that stands in a Tankerton street falls under section 169 of the Highways Act 1980, and Kent County Council, as highway authority, grants it when the scaffolding firm has made its application. Start dates follow from the survey, which shows how much roof the job covers and so how long the poles stay. The fee for 2026 to 2027 is £52 per week, the application must reach Kent County Council 5 working days ahead, and the scaffolding firm carries public liability cover of £5 million. A site inspection, where Kent County Council thinks one is needed, costs £78.
The licence terms are down to earth. Kent sets a minimum 1.2 metre distance between the scaffold and the carriageway; the upright standards also need white paint from the pavement to 2.5 metres. Kent County Council issues skips a separate permit, £45 per week for 2026 to 2027 with 5 working days' notice, and no skip may exceed 5 metres in length or 2 metres in width. We plan the waste around that permit, so old tiles, battens and underlay leave the road when we do. Kent County Council's highways team, on 03000 41 81 81, will take questions before anyone applies.
Tankerton is a coastal village, with the shore about 150 metres off, so weather bears on the fixings. Met Office averages for Manston, 1991 to 2020, set out the wider picture. Manston averages a mean wind at 10 metres of 9.86 knots, climbing to 11.21 knots in January, and about 613 mm of rain a year. Manston's record also counts 110.05 days a year with 1 mm or more of rain and 21.43 days of air frost. These are averages for one station, never a forecast for a given street.
Cupa, a slate maker, writes that coastal buildings, like those sited on slopes or hills, are graded for higher exposure. BS 5534 provides wind uplift formulas and a method for calculating fixing specifications, so on a Tankerton roof the nails, clips and batten fixings are worked out against that site's own exposure and not carried over from a sheltered job.
Four steps follow, in the order the work happens, and you hear from us after each one.
Tankerton, survey to clear road
Survey and photos
We see the roof from the road and up close, then send you pictures.
Check the boundaries
Conservation area lines, any listing, and the building control route.
Licence and permit
The scaffolder applies to Kent County Council; a skip gets its own permit.
Strip, fix, clear
Fixings set for the site, a daily update, and the waste leaves with us.
10-Year workmanship guarantee. In writing
Around Tankerton
Tankerton's neighbours along the Canterbury side
Tankerton shares Canterbury City Council, the STG partnership and Kent County Council's highway licences with Whitstable, Swalecliffe, Chestfield, Seasalter and Herne Bay, so a roof anywhere along this stretch of the Canterbury district follows one paperwork route from survey to completion.
Tankerton boundaries, licences and Rochester
Do the three conservation areas around Tankerton change how a roof is repaired?
They can. Church Street (Whitstable), Tankerton and the railway and station area of Whitstable all lie within about 0.75 km of the centre. Replacing like with like is a repair; a different covering changes the appearance, though on a house it is normally still permitted development, and inside the areas it is dormers that lose the allowance. We check your address on Canterbury City Council's map and tell you which case applies before we price.
Which office handles Building Regulations for a Tankerton roof?
STG Building Control Partnership, whose Rochester office is Eastgate House on the High Street (ME1 1EW), on 01634 331133. Canterbury City Council sends applicants to its building control partner. You may use a registered building control approver instead. The Planning Portal's 25 per cent of the envelope and 50 per cent of the roof test is the yardstick we explain.
Our Tankerton house needs a scaffold: whose licence is it?
Kent County Council's, as highway authority, once the scaffolding firm applies, at least 5 working days before it begins. The scaffolder needs public liability cover of £5 million, and the fee for 2026 to 2027 is £52 per week. Dates are fixed with the scaffolder after the survey, so the licence is in place before the poles go up.
Does being close to the shoreline change how slates are fixed in Tankerton?
Cupa, the slate maker, grades coastal buildings with higher exposure, and BS 5534 supplies the wind uplift formulas behind fixing specifications. So each Tankerton roof's fixings are worked out against its own exposure, not copied from a sheltered job. For weather, Manston's averages are about 613 mm of rain annually and a 9.86 knot mean wind.
Can you tell me whether an Article 4 direction covers my Tankerton street?
Only Canterbury City Council can; it shows its Article 4 areas on a map. Each direction takes certain permitted development rights away inside its own boundary, and which rights differ between directions. Before any job that alters a roof's outward look, your address goes to the council, and its reply reaches you in writing.
Send photos of your Tankerton roof
Tell us what you can see from the road, or book a look; the one written price follows the survey.