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Wingham Conservation Area fence heights: what Dover DC allows

The Wingham Conservation Area sits in Dover District Council territory (not Canterbury). Front-boundary fence heights, listed-frontage constraints, and where permitted development stops.

Wingham village centre sits inside a Conservation Area designated by Dover District Council. Fence heights on your property are covered by the general permitted-development rules in England, plus Article 4 tightening in some designated CA frontages, plus Listed Building Consent where a fence attaches to a listed wall or building.

The default rule

Under the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order 2015, a fence, wall or gate can be erected without planning permission up to:

• 2 metres where it does not front a highway used by vehicles.
• 1 metre where it does front a highway used by vehicles - so the High Street frontage in Wingham, the Canterbury Road frontage, and any side boundary that runs onto a road.

What the Conservation Area changes

The Wingham CA does not automatically lower these limits. It does mean two things:

• Dover DC can (and in places has) imposed an Article 4 direction removing permitted development on specific frontages. Before putting a new fence on the High Street frontage, check the Dover DC planning portal for Article 4 coverage at your address.
• Even where PD applies, timber choice matters. A high larch-lap panel run behind a listed cottage on the High Street will draw a conservation-team query. Closeboard or picket in stained softwood keeps you inside the character of the CA.

Listed stock nuance

Where a boundary fence attaches to a listed wall, listed outbuilding, or the elevation of a listed cottage (there are several on the High Street and around the market square), Listed Building Consent from Dover DC conservation is required in addition to the PD position. This is a separate consent regime. On listed jobs I quote for the LBC application timeline as part of the scope.

What we actually do

For a Wingham High Street front boundary, the recommend is picket or closeboard at 900mm to 1000mm - inside the vehicular-frontage 1m limit, and quiet enough for the CA. For rear-garden boundaries, closeboard at 1800mm is the fleet default. For side boundaries running onto a road, we drop to 1000mm at the corner and rise to 1800mm two metres in from the highway line.

Sources: Town and Country Planning (GPD Order) 2015; Dover District Council planning portal; Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990.