Builders in West Chiltington

West Chiltington is about nine miles south-west of us, and like Pulborough it carries two separate conservation areas rather than one: West Chiltington and West Chiltington Lanes.

They are separate designations with separate boundaries. Being outside one tells you nothing about the other, and the Lanes designation in particular covers a dispersed pattern of development rather than a compact village centre — so the boundary is not intuitive.

What either one removes

Both are article 2(3) land. Inside either:

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

Permission is also needed for altering windows and external doors, solar panels, satellite dishes, constructing an outbuilding, and changing a fence, wall or gate facing a highway.

The trees matter here particularly

Every tree in a conservation area with a trunk over 75mm in diameter measured 1.5 metres above the ground is protected. Six weeks’ written notice before any work, including to a tree in your own garden. Applications are free; unauthorised work to a protected tree is a criminal offence.

West Chiltington Lanes is characterised by wooded, dispersed plots with a great deal of mature planting, and that has two consequences. The permission one above — and a structural one: building near a mature tree on the clay soils common here means deeper foundations, which is a real cost, and is best established before the quotation rather than at dig stage.

Outside both

Full national permitted development rights apply — a rear extension of 4 metres detached or 3 metres otherwise with no application at all, loft conversions under Class B, side extensions up to half the width of the original house.

Check which, if either

Use the council’s mapping tool against your actual address. With two overlapping designations in one parish, reasoning from the postal address or from a neighbour’s project is unreliable.

If you are inside either, £105 buys written pre-application advice from Horsham District Council with a 28-day response — worth it before drawings.

Building regulations

Apply regardless, through Sussex Building Control, run jointly by Horsham District Council and Crawley Borough Council.