Conservation area

[ML1706]

We are moving to a conservation area (aylesbury vale) and we'd like to put a 3ft fence at the front of our house on top of a 3ft stone wall at street level. The new fence would be on the same elevation as the house. We were also hoping to replace the front window with french doors so we can use the garden.
(We have very small children hence the need for a fence)
I have seen other houses on the same street with a fence just like the one we want to put up.
Does that mean we dont need planning permission? It takes 6 weeks just to hear back on wether we need it and we're hoping to move in 7 weeks.
Any advice welcome

You’ll have to ring your councils planning department for advice.

We have and they won't tell us anything apart from doing a pre application called 'do I need planning permission' whick costs £80 and takes up to 6 weeks 😣

Go to the council planning department portal on the council website, look up the property's that have this fencing / wall / doors and look at their planning applications , it should show you what has been used before and now have a precedence in the street ( providing they used the correct channels and didn't just go ahead )

Good idea thanks

If it's next to a road anything above 1m in total (so wall and fence together) will need planning permission.

In our conservation areas you would need planning permission for this, and there would be no guarantee of it being approved. My suggestion would be to see if there is an X area residents association (website or FB group) and ask them. If it's anything like our area they're really the people who would decide to approve/object and make a recommendation to the council which is often followed for an easy life...

I think it'll depend on why it's a conservation area. I live in one where all the houses are different and we've got planning for some external alterations just fine.

However I know someone else who lived in an area where all the buildings were identical- they had everything dictated, even the colour of the windowframes (green!!).

If it's an area like the latter, or a listed property then planning will be more complex of possibly not given. If it's and area like mine you may be luckier!!

The other thing is in my area, is need permission for a fence but not for a Hedge. It'd take a while to get privacy unless you throw money at a ready grown one, but it could be a way round it.

The fact the house is in a conservation area makes absolutely no difference to whether or not you need permission for a fence. Unless of course there is something called an article 4 direction in force controlling the construction of fences.

Will the fence be directly adjacent to the road? If yes then you’ll need permission, if not then you won’t. If the fence is an absolute necessity then why don’t you put it it up, then apply for permission making it absolutely clear in your application your reasons for it already being there (I assume safety) and be totally prepared to take it down/move it if permission is not granted.

Photos and a sketch would help to confirm if pp is needed or not. The planning portal also has a great tool to check if permission is needed.