Heritage Statement and design advice for a new stone house in Holmfirth Conservation Area.

A gap in a coherent stone street.

The proposal was for a single new house on the gap. The council’s register records that an outline application for residential development on the land was refused in 1988.

The heritage problem was specific. The conservation area appraisal, written by the Holmfirth Conservation Group in 2018, marks the neighbouring houses as buildings that make a positive contribution. The plot sits between two building lines of different dates. The houses to the north stand above the road. And the Hightown part of the conservation area is valued for its views across the valley. A new building here had to take its height, alignment, materials and detail from neighbours of two different dates.

The decision would turn on s.72(1) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, which requires special attention to the desirability of preserving or enhancing the character or appearance of the conservation area. Because the Civic Hall is close by, the application also had to show that its setting had been considered under s.66(1).

Design advice first, assessment second.

We were sent the architect’s drawings with the request for a fee. Before we were appointed we advised on the front elevation: the proportions of the windows in the ground-floor bay, and the size of the dormer window relative to the dormer itself. The drawings were revised before the statement was written, so the scheme we assessed was a better one than the scheme we were first shown.

We then visited the site and traced the development of the street from the 1847 tithe map and the Ordnance Survey editions from 1854 to 1967. From that evidence we drew a phased plan of Hightown Lane that dates every building on it. The plan shows that the street was built up in stages over more than a century and that infill is part of its history, which matters when the question is whether one more house belongs there.

We assessed the Civic Hall separately, following Historic England’s advice on the setting of heritage assets. The site is separated from the hall by distance and by the roofs of an intervening building, and we concluded that it does not form part of the hall’s immediate setting and that the development would not affect its significance.

The Heritage Statement.

Our Heritage Statement of March 2026 described the site and its context with photographs taken on the visit, set out the map regression and the phased plan, and assessed the significance of the conservation area and of the Hightown character area within it. It dealt with the Civic Hall and with the two buildings on Hightown Lane that the Holme Valley Neighbourhood Development Plan identifies as non-designated heritage assets, neither of which adjoins the site.

The assessment explained how the design responded to its neighbours: a front wall aligned with the house to the north, natural stone, and a bay window and dormer that refer to those of the neighbouring houses. It also noted that parking within the plot answered a problem the appraisal itself identifies, which is on-street parking. We concluded that the proposal would preserve the character and appearance of the conservation area and would not harm the significance of the Civic Hall.

Permission granted after amendment.

The council’s conservation and design officer did not object to a house on the site but asked for amendments to reduce its presence in the street, including changes to the lower ground floor, the dormer and the landscaping of the frontage. Revised plans were submitted in response.

Kirklees granted planning permission in September 2026 under delegated powers. The planning officer’s report concluded that the proposal “would not cause harm to the character or appearance of the street scene or the wider conservation area”. A condition requires the walling and roofing materials to be approved before building rises above the foundations. Holme Valley Parish Council supported the application.

The application was decided under the National Planning Policy Framework published in August 2026, which the officer applied through its new Chapter 20 heritage policies. Our statement had been written under the previous Framework. The assessment of significance and effect did not depend on which edition was in force.