Areas
Planning permission and building work in North Somerset: what you need to know
Short answer
North Somerset Council decides planning applications for the district, which includes Weston-super-Mare, Clevedon, Portishead, Nailsea, Long Ashton and villages such as Wrington, Blagdon and Banwell.
A council guide from September 2023 puts the number of conservation areas at 33; they include Great Weston, created in 2018. Most of the district's many Article 4 directions cover particular pieces of land; those in conservation areas include Clevedon and, since 2022, the stone walls of Great Weston. Part of the district lies in the Mendip Hills National Landscape. For permissions granted in 2026, residential CIL is up to £111.89 per square metre, the rate outside Weston on sites that are not strategic development areas. The council has supplied its conservation area and Article 4 data to the national planning data platform.
The council and your planning history
Search applications by address or reference on the council's planning search, or use its planning map, which shows current and decided applications alongside conservation areas, listed buildings, flood zones, Green Belt and tree preservation orders. Applications received before 2000 are not online; the council's page says you can book an appointment to see them at the Town Hall in Weston-super-Mare, with no fee. What to look for is in how to read a planning history.
Conservation areas
The council's HER user guide (September 2023) says all 33 conservation areas in North Somerset are mapped on the Historic Environment Record. They include Clevedon, Clevedon Triangle, Long Ashton, Congresbury, Yatton, Wrington, Banwell, Blagdon, Uphill, Worle Village, Barrow Gurney and several in Portishead and Backwell. Great Weston, created in 2018, brings together the former Birnbeck, Melrose/Grove Park, Boulevard and Montpellier, Beach Lawns and Ellenborough Park conservation areas with parts of the town centre and Whitecross. The council's conservation areas page has appraisals for Barrow Gurney, Congresbury and Great Weston (Banwell and Churchill are available by email on request), and lists the works that need permission in a conservation area. See living in a conservation area.
Article 4 directions
The council's Article 4 page publishes scans of more than thirty directions; the national planning data dates them from 1956 to 2022. Most cover specific land: in the Gordano Valley, at Backwell, Cleeve, Dundry, Winford and Winscombe, and on the Weston seafront and at Sand Bay. A few name particular addresses, such as 11 to 15 Mayfair Avenue in Nailsea, or estates, such as land at the Churchmead Estate. The conservation area directions are these:
| Area | What needs permission | In force |
|---|---|---|
| Great Weston conservation area | Improving, altering or demolishing a stone wall, including gate piers | 15 September 2022 |
| Clevedon conservation area (direction no. 3) | Enlarging, improving or altering the windows of identified houses and of their porches and outbuildings, including replacing frames | Approved 15 November 1985 |
| Clevedon, Clevedon Triangle, Banwell and Wrington conservation areas, and the former Birnbeck and Melrose/Grove Park areas in Weston | Earlier directions from 1976 to 1995; the scans on the council's page set out the rights each removes | Various |
(i) The improvement or alteration of a stone wall including any gate piers/pillars being development comprised within Class A of Part 2 Minor Operations of Schedule 2 to the said Order and not being development comprised within any other Class and (ii) Any building operation consisting of the demolition of the whole or any part of any stone wall including any gate piers/pillars development comprised within Class C of Part 11 Heritage and Demolition of Schedule 2 to the said Order and not being development comprised within any other Class
The council's planning map has an Article 4 layer. How directions work is in Article 4 directions.
Listed buildings and the local heritage list
Search the National Heritage List for England to see whether a building is listed. North Somerset has kept a Local Heritage List since 2021; the council reported 65 entries in January 2025, and the adopted entries are on the North Somerset edition of Know Your Place. Anyone can nominate a building. Consent for listed buildings is covered in listed building consent.
The Mendip Hills National Landscape
National planning data shows the Mendip Hills National Landscape extending into North Somerset, and the council's development management policy DM11 (adopted July 2016) requires development there to conserve and, where possible, enhance its landscape and scenic beauty. The Order still calls it an area of outstanding natural beauty. It is article 2(3) land, so houses there lose the Class A rights to extend to the side, to build a rear extension of more than one storey and to clad (paragraph A.2), and the Class B right to enlarge the roof (paragraph B.1(f)); outbuildings more than 20 metres from the house are capped at 10 square metres in total (paragraph E.2). There is no National Park or World Heritage Site in the district.
CIL
North Somerset has charged CIL since 18 January 2018. Its CIL Indexation Guidance Notice 2026, published in December 2025, sets these residential rates for permissions granted in 2026:
| Zone | Residential, not a strategic development area | Strategic development area |
|---|---|---|
| A: Weston town centre | £0.00 | £0.00 |
| B: outer Weston | £55.94 | £27.97 |
| C: rest of the district | £111.89 | £55.94 |
An extension under 100 square metres that creates no new dwelling is not liable (CIL Regulations 2010, regulation 42). See CIL on an extension.
Design guidance for householders
- Residential design guide, section 1: protecting living conditions of neighbours (January 2013).
- Residential design guide, section 2: appearance and character of house extensions and alterations (adopted 1 April 2014).
- Parking standards SPD (December 2021).
- The Great Weston conservation area management guidance and the conservation area appraisals.
Planning data coverage
North Somerset has supplied its own data to planning.data.gov.uk. The government's provider dashboard shows its conservation area data live and its Article 4 data submitted with issues still to fix. In September 2026 the platform held 39 conservation area records, because the dataset lists the older Weston areas separately as well as a single Weston-super-Mare area, and 38 Article 4 direction areas, none of which yet records which rights it removes. A national postcode checker will find the boundaries but may not tell you what a direction covers; the council's scans do.
What this means for you
- Check your address on the council's planning map, with the conservation area and Article 4 layers switched on.
- In Great Weston, improving, altering or demolishing a stone wall or gate pier needs planning permission, except in the areas cross-hatched on the direction's map.
- In the Mendip Hills, plan extensions and outbuildings on the basis that the article 2(3) limits apply.
Parallel in North Somerset
Parallel Architecture works across North Somerset. Projects here:
- Broadlands, Long Ashton, North Somerset
For a view on a particular house or site, see the planning potential review or get in touch.
Sources
- North Somerset Council: conservation areas n-somerset.gov.uk
- North Somerset Council: Historic Environment Record user guide, September 2023 n-somerset.gov.uk
- North Somerset Council: Article 4 directions n-somerset.gov.uk
- North Somerset Council: Great Weston conservation area Article 4 direction (ATD55) n-somerset.gov.uk
- North Somerset Council: Clevedon conservation area Article 4 direction no. 3 (ATD43) n-somerset.gov.uk
- North Somerset Council: search for a planning application n-somerset.gov.uk
- North Somerset Council: planning map n-somerset.gov.uk
- North Somerset Council: local heritage list n-somerset.gov.uk
- North Somerset Council: protection for more local heritage sites, 20 January 2025 n-somerset.gov.uk
- North Somerset Council: Sites and Policies Plan Part 1, development management policies (July 2016), policy DM11 n-somerset.gov.uk
- North Somerset Council: CIL Indexation Guidance Notice 2026 n-somerset.gov.uk
- North Somerset Council: adopted supplementary plans n-somerset.gov.uk
- GPDO 2015, Schedule 1, Part 1: article 2(3) land legislation.gov.uk
- GPDO 2015, Schedule 2, Part 1: Classes A, B and E legislation.gov.uk
- CIL Regulations 2010, regulation 42: exemption for minor development legislation.gov.uk
- Planning data: area of outstanding natural beauty dataset planning.data.gov.uk
- Planning data: Article 4 direction area dataset planning.data.gov.uk
- Check and provide planning data: North Somerset Council overview provide.planning.data.gov.uk
- Historic England: search the National Heritage List for England historicengland.org.uk