Article 4 Direction areas

Article 4 Directions are issued by the Council in circumstances where specific control over development is required.

This page is related to Article 4 Directions related to built heritage.

You can find out if you live in an Article 4 area by using the map lay under Planning Constraints on the Council's District Mapping Service, or through your My St Albans account.

The Council has also issued Article 4 Directions to protect some of our employment zones.

Other Article 4 Directions are in place to control development. These are included below under 'Other Article 4 Direction Areas'.

Why we have Article 4 Direction Areas

A threat to built heritage continues to be the gradual erosion of character through unsympathetic external alterations to buildings and the streetscene. Works to architectural detailing, boundary treatments and changes to external materials can often be permitted development.

Permitted development is works that do not require planning permission and therefore works that the Council has no control over. In specific places, these changes have been identified to potentially cause harm to the significance of an area.

The designation of Article 4 Direction areas can help to identify and prevent problems such as these by restricting permitted development rights. This means that planning permission must be sought for some works which would otherwise be permitted development. In this way change can be managed to ensure it does not cause harm to the significance of the area.

Article 4 Direction Areas in Conservation Areas

There are four main areas which are covered by Article 4 Directions:

For more information on each Article 4 area, including what permitted development rights are withdrawn please use the above links.