Heritage Statement for a shop change of use in Elland Conservation Area.

A small application that still needed a heritage case.

A local retailer was buying the building so that the business could move out of rented premises on the same road. Planning permission was needed to change the use of the ground and first floors from a beauty salon to a shop. No external works were proposed.

Because the site is in a conservation area, the application needed a Heritage Statement. The council had also told the applicant that listed buildings in the town centre might be affected, among them the Grade II listed 7 Timber Street and 65 and 67 Southgate.

The difficulty was one of proportion. The duty in s.72(1) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 applies to every planning decision in a conservation area, however minor, and s.66(1) applies wherever the setting of a listed building may be affected. A statement that ignored the buildings the council had named would have invited a request for more information. A statement that treated a change of use with no physical works as a major heritage case would have cost a small business time and money it did not need to spend, at a point when it was working to the timetable of a property purchase.

Scoping the assessment to what the proposal could affect.

We worked from Ordnance Survey maps published in 1854, 1893, 1907 and 1918 to establish when the terrace was built and how it grew, and from the Elland Conservation Area Appraisal to identify what gives this part of the town its character. The assessment was desk-based, which was proportionate for a proposal with no physical works.

The appraisal records that vacant and boarded-up commercial premises give the town centre a negative image. That finding became the centre of the assessment: a continuing shop use keeps a traditional building occupied in the place where the conservation area’s commercial character is concentrated.

We dealt with the listed buildings directly instead of leaving them out. We plotted them against the site and explained why distance and topography meant that a change of use, with no alteration to the exterior, could not affect their setting. The proposal was then tested against s.72(1) and s.66(1) and against the National Planning Policy Framework in force at the time.

A concise statement, delivered within the week.

The Heritage Statement set out the site and its development with four map extracts, summarised the conservation area and the Southgate and Town Hall character area, located the listed buildings on a plan, and stated the legislative and policy tests. Its assessment was short and specific: the character and appearance of Elland Conservation Area would be preserved, there would be no harm to its significance, and the setting of the listed buildings would be unaffected.

The applicant sent us the details on a Sunday evening. The statement was dated the following Wednesday and was on the council’s register the day after, the day the application was validated.

The Conservation Officer agreed with the assessment.

Calderdale’s Conservation Officer described the statement as “a thorough summary of the significance of the Conservation Area” and wrote: “I concur with the assessment of impact.” The officer added that it was positive that the building would continue in use.

The planning officer’s report reproduced those comments in full. No objections were received, and planning permission was granted in February 2021 with no heritage conditions attached.

The project shows what a Heritage Statement for a minor application should be: short, accurate about what is and is not affected, and complete enough that the Conservation Officer has nothing further to ask.