Three sites, one designation
UNESCO inscribed the property in 1988, and it has three parts. The Cathedral is one. St Augustine's Abbey is another, and St Martin's Church is the third. They are linked by what UNESCO calls a buffer zone. The World Heritage Site is therefore not the city centre, and it is not a district of houses. It is a short list of religious buildings and their grounds.
That matters for the question. Hearing that Canterbury is a World Heritage city, it is easy to picture a rule that covers every terrace near the Cathedral. It does not work that way. The area that counts as the site is the property itself, with the buffer zone as a separate idea that the planning Order leaves unnamed.
Around the site sit streets that are protected in other ways. Canterbury's local plan policies protect the setting of the site, and the city's conservation area appraisal deals with views towards the Cathedral. Canterbury City Council reports 97 conservation areas in its district, so a house near the Cathedral is far more likely to be affected by one of those, or by listing, than by the designation itself.
What the site removes and what it leaves alone
The General Permitted Development Order lists "a World Heritage Site" as article 2(3) land. The practical effect is in Class B, which covers dormers and other roof extensions: B.1(f) says there is no permitted development if "the dwellinghouse is on article 2(3) land". So a dormer needs planning permission on that land.
Class C, the class that covers roof windows, has no such exclusion, and that is the reason the two answers differ. A roof window is still permitted development on article 2(3) land, if it meets Class C's conditions on projection, height, side slopes and the rest. Those are laid out on our roof window planning permission page.
| Work | Class | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Dormer | B | Permission needed |
| Roof window | C | Unchanged by the site |
These rights belong to a dwellinghouse, meaning a house rather than a flat. A flat has none of them, and a church, a cathedral or an abbey is not a dwellinghouse at all, so work on those goes by the other routes described below.
The buildings that bring their own consent
Where roof work is on the buildings of the site themselves, the main route is not planning permission under the Order. It is whichever consent system belongs to the building. The routes are:
- A church still used for worship by the Church of England: the faculty system.
- A cathedral: the Care of Cathedrals Measure, under which the Cathedral itself has an exemption from listed building consent.
- A scheduled monument: scheduled monument consent for the works.
- A listed building outside those systems: listed building consent if the work touches its character.
Canterbury City Council says: "You will need listed building consent for any changes which affect the building's character." A roof window in a listed house can be such a change, even though the house keeps Class C. The listing, not the World Heritage Site, is what normally decides it.
If your home is tied to one of the three sites in any way, ask who holds the consent route before any roofer is asked for a price. The wrong application can cost weeks, and the right one may sit with the Church and not the council.
Who to ask in Canterbury
For a house in or near the site, work through the questions in this order:
- Is the building listed? If so, changes that alter its character need listed building consent.
- Is it in a conservation area, and does an Article 4 direction apply? The council publishes a map of areas covered by Article 4 directions.
- Is it a flat? Flats and maisonettes have no permitted development rights, so work that alters how the outside of the flat looks needs planning permission.
- Is it inside the boundary of the property or its buffer zone? Ask the council which applies at your address.
The council's planning team, not a roofer, makes that call, and a written answer is worth having before any order is placed. Keep the reply with your papers, in case the question comes up again.
The roof side of the job comes once the consent question is settled. We look at slate and tile roofs alike, and we price what the survey finds. See roof windows on a listed building and our main page on roof windows and skylights for what comes next.
