The Non-designated Heritage Asset

One of the most common building types we work on, especially in the local vicinity of the New Forest, is the ‘Non-designated Heritage Asset’ or locally listed building. These properties do not carry the weight and of a nationally listed building, however, they can present challenges from a planning perspective.

 We find in our practice that conservation officers and planning departments often eiter aren’t aware of a particular property being so significant until they visit them.  Also, many property owners  (our Clients) are not aware their property carries this status when they purchase them. It is only once we start our initial feasibility and submit the project for a pre-app assessment that it becomes apparent a property carries this status – and it can mean there is a need to go back to the drawing board.

 The project that features in this article was one of those projects where the owners were not aware of the property’s status, however the distinctive front elevation, location and local conservation area appraisal provided concrete evidence it was locally significant. Because of this, we developed two design options to table to the planners

(1) our Client’s preferred option and

(2) our fall back option – and it was this option we moved forward with

 We have featured this project in our journal to show that although some properties may present us with statutory difficulties, working with those challenges and working with conservation officers has merits. You can still create something special and enhance the significance of the original property.