What is a Conservation Area Character Appraisal?
A process of change within a Conservation Area is inevitable and the purpose of a Conservation Area character appraisal is to define as clearly as possible the historic (and by implication, archaeological), architectural and natural components of the conservation area that are considered especially important and contribute most to the area's character.
Factors to Consider
The principal aims of character appraisals are to define:-
- What influences have given the conservation area its particular character;
- What chiefly reflects this character and what is most worth conserving;
- What has suffered damage or loss and may need reinstating;
- Areas that may be improved by redevelopment.
Conservation Area designation is the main instrument available to local authorities to give effect to conservation policies for a particular neighbourhood or area. Designation introduces a general control over the demolition of unlisted buildings and provides the basis for policies designed to preserve or enhance all the aspects of character or appearance that define an area's special interest.
It is the quality and interest of areas, rather than that of individual buildings, which should be the prime consideration in identifying conservation areas. Our experience of historic areas depends on much more than the quality of individual buildings – on the historic layout of property boundaries and thoroughfares; on a particular mix of uses; on characteristic local materials; on appropriate scaling and detailing of contemporary buildings; on the quality of advertisements, shop fronts, street furniture and hard and soft surfaces; on vistas along streets and between buildings; and on the extent to which traffic intrudes and limits pedestrian use of spaces between buildings. Conservation area designation is seen as the means of recognising the importance of all these factors and of ensuring that conservation policy addresses the quality of townscape in its broadest sense as well as protecting individual buildings.
Character Appraisals are intended to recognise the conservation area’s special historic, archaeological and architectural interest through maps, photographs and analysis of the area’s development.
Existing Appraisals
Appraisals have recently been carried out for the following Conservation Areas:
Last Updated - 02/04/2008