Conservation Area Appraisals and Management Plans (previously Conservation Area Statements)

The Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 places a duty on local planning authorities to prepare and publish proposals for the protection and improvement of Conservation Areas.  North Wiltshire District Council have led the production of a number of Conservation Area Statements since 1990 and each of these were the subject of public consultation before being adopted as Supplementary Planning Guidance (SPG) to the Local Plan (current at the time of adoption).  The following Conservation Area Statements were adopted as SPG in relation to earlier Local Plans for North Wiltshire, and are therefore reduced in their role as a material consideration for development proposals.  However, they are still a useful reference tool and several will form the basis of updated documents in the future:

*Produced as a joint Conservation Area and Village Design Statement

**Superseded by Appraisal and Management Plan drafts following new guidance

Most of the above previously adopted Conservation Area Statements can still be purchased for £5.00 plus £1.50 p&p from North Wiltshire District Council.  Click here for application form for conservation area statements.(PDF 17Kb).  Smaller guides to Conservation Areas Statements were produced for Cricklade (PDF 1.15Mb), Cherhill (PDF 1.40Mb) and Sherston  (PDF 1.05Mb) and can be accessed by downloading a PDF version.

The Planning and Compulsory Purchases Act 2004 superseded Supplementary Planning Guidance with Supplementary Planning Documents (SPDs), which require to be programmed as part of the ongoing Local Development Scheme (LDS).  Furthermore, new guidance on conservation area practice was published by English Heritage in February 2006 which advised that the preparation of proposals within Conservation Areas be presented differently, as follows:

"It is envisaged that separate supplementary planning documents will be used to detail conservation area policies for major or complex conservation areas, or to produce a conservation area policy SPD covering part or all of a local authority’s district, if this is appropriate. Such SPD should be supported by adopted and published character appraisals which define the specific character that is to be preserved and enhanced and proposed management strategies for the individual conservation areas concerned. A conservation area character appraisal, with or without a related management strategy, cannot itself be a SPD and therefore does not require sustainability appraisal.” (Guidance on the Management of Conservation Areas, English Heritage, February 2006, p6.

In taking account of this above recent guidance North Wiltshire District Council now intend (within the LDS programme) to produce a suite of complementary documents to supplement Local Plan 2011 Historic Environment policies HE1 and HE2, as follows:

The programme for the production of the above Supplementary Planning Documents is detailed in this Council's Local Development Scheme.  The various Appraisals above, some of which provide documented analysis and evidence to inform the six town Management Plan SPDs, will be published below as they are produced:

Malmesbury Conservation Area Appraisal (PDF 5Mb)

Chippenham Conservation Area Appraisal (PDF 9.7Mb)

Please note that this file may take a while to download and should not be downloaded using a dial-up modem.