Loft conversions in Walsall

Highgate and Great Barr: roof work needs permission

The Highgate direction covers selected houses in Sandwell Street, Highgate Road, Belvidere Road, Sandy Mount Road, Emery Street and Jesson Road. It withdraws the permitted development rights for enlarging a roof and for any other alteration to it, including a change of materials, so on those houses even new rooflights need planning permission. The council's 2010 appraisal of the area describes the larger terraces in Jesson Road with their original three-light dormers topped by small pediments, which is the kind of detail a new dormer nearby will be judged against.

The Great Barr direction covers part of the Great Barr conservation area, whose character centres on Great Barr Hall and its parkland, and it removes the same roof rights. In autumn 2024 the council consulted on making that conservation area smaller but extending the direction, so check the current maps for your address before design work starts.

The other directions in the borough are narrow. They cover 11 Bernard Street, 12 Bradford Street, 14 New Street, 52 to 88 (even) Moat Road, land off Streetly Wood and Bourne Vale, and the council lists them all on one page. Each direction is a local land charge, so it shows up on the search when a house is bought.

Other conservation areas and planning history

The remaining conservation areas, among them Arboretum, Caldmore Green, Bloxwich Park, Elmore Green, Old Pelsall, Old Rushall and Willenhall, have no area-wide direction, but roof extensions are still not permitted development inside them. A dormer, hip-to-gable or mansard there needs a planning application. Rooflights fall under a different permitted development class, so they are often still possible without one.

Outside the conservation areas there is one more check. Walsall Council points out that it can remove permitted development rights through conditions on earlier planning decisions, and that the full planning history of the house shows whether it has. It is worth checking before any drawings are made.

Matching the conversion to the district

Walsall's Designing Walsall guide, a supplementary planning document adopted in 2008 and revised in 2013, describes the borough district by district. The central suburbs around the town centre are mostly Victorian; in Chuckery the terraces are two to two and a half storeys and built right up to the pavement. These houses suit a rear dormer, or an L-shaped dormer over the outrigger where there is one, within the 40 cubic metre allowance for terraced houses. Where the front door opens onto the pavement, scaffold and deliveries are planned around the street.

Park Hall, Pheasey and Gillity Village are mostly interwar and post-war semis and detached houses on curving roads. Where the roof is hipped, a hip-to-gable with a rear dormer is the usual answer, with 50 cubic metres to work with. Streetly is different again: early 20th century houses in large plots, partly inside the Streetly Area of Special Townscape Character. That is a local design designation rather than a conservation area, so it matters most when an application is needed.