Builders in Storrington

Storrington is about ten miles south of us, under the downs, and it raises a question almost nowhere else in our area does: who decides your planning application?

It may not be Horsham District Council

Parts of the south of Horsham District fall inside the South Downs National Park. Where a property is inside the Park boundary, the local planning authority is the South Downs National Park Authority — not the council you pay council tax to.

Horsham District Council says so itself: if your property is within the South Downs National Park, your application will be managed by the Park Authority.

Different authority, different portal, different local plan, different pre-application service at a different price. Submitting to the wrong one wastes weeks.

The boundary is drawn on landscape lines, not parish boundaries, so a village on the Park edge can be partly in and partly out. Check your actual address.

What the Park designation does to permitted development

The National Park is article 2(3) land, exactly as a conservation area is. So inside it:

• No side extensions under permitted development
• No two-storey rear extensions
• No permitted development loft conversions — Class B is unavailable
• No cladding
• The larger home extension scheme is unavailable, capping rear extensions at 4 metres detached and 3 metres otherwise

The Park Authority also has statutory purposes around conserving natural beauty, which carry real weight in decisions. Applications there routinely get more scrutiny on materials, massing and external lighting than an equivalent proposal further north.

And there is a conservation area as well

Storrington Conservation Area covers part of the village independently of the Park boundary. Where the two overlap you are dealing with both. Where you are in the conservation area but outside the Park, Horsham District Council decides it, with the conservation area restrictions applying.

Three possible positions on one village, in other words, and the only way to know which you are in is to check the address against both boundaries.

Building control does not change

This is the part that surprises people. National Park status changes the planning authority. It does not change building control. Building regulations here still go through Sussex Building Control, the shared service run by Horsham District Council and Crawley Borough Council.

Two different processes, two different bodies, and being in the Park only moves one of them. The difference between the two.

Where to start

Establish which authority decides before you spend anything on drawings. It changes the process, the policies, the fees and the timescale — and it is a five minute check.

More on the National Park question.