Block Management in Glastonbury
Block, estate and leasehold management for Glastonbury. Compliance is tracked against Somerset Council.
Managing a Block in Glastonbury at a Glance
- Local authority
- Somerset Council
- Authority type
- Unitary
- Building control
- Somerset Building Control, the council's own service covering the four former district areas
- County
- Somerset
- Fire and rescue service
- Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service
- Water and sewerage
- Wessex Water
- Setting
- Inland
Who You Deal with in Glastonbury
A block in Glastonbury deals with Somerset Council, a unitary authority, so building control, planning and housing enforcement sit with one body. Fire safety in the common parts is enforced by Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service. Communal water and sewerage is Wessex Water.
The Residential Stock in Glastonbury
The Glastonbury ward is the cleanest ward-to-town match in this group, with 94 per cent of its households inside the town, so its figures can be quoted as the town's. The town itself held 4,058 households at the 2021 Census with 744 in flats, 18.3 per cent, made up of 505 in purpose-built blocks, 145 in a converted or shared house, 28 in another converted building and 66 over commercial premises. At 19.5 per cent of all flats, Glastonbury has the highest converted and shared house share of the Somerset towns covered here, and the highest share above commercial premises at 8.9 per cent. That is subdivided historic houses and flats over High Street shops, and it is precisely the stock the town's Article 4 directions bite on.
Flood Risk in Glastonbury
A dry island in wet moors, and the data shows exactly that shape. The strategic flood risk assessment states that there are large areas to the north, west and south covered by the recorded flood outline but no recorded flood incidents affecting the urban area, and that no part of the urban area lies within Flood Zone 3 except a small area around Beckery and east of the A39. Tidal risk is described as negligible and the town is not at risk from reservoir flooding. The overlay agrees: 1.3 per cent of the built-up area is in Flood Zone 3 but 15.3 per cent is in Flood Zone 2, the widest gap between the two of any town in this group, which is the signature of a settlement sitting just above a very large floodplain. The East Somerset Rivers alert covers 16.3 per cent of the town, but the two River Brue warning areas cover 0.2 and 0.0 per cent because what they actually name is roads and moor: the B3151 to Meare, the A39 between Street and Glastonbury, Glastonbury Heath and Cradle Bridge. Groundwater is the mechanism to watch close to the Tor, where the assessment identifies potential for groundwater flooding of property situated below ground level, which in practice means basements and semi-basement plant. Five recorded sewer flooding incidents are logged. The town's historic high-water mark is 1606, measured by a marker in the chancel of St Benedict's Church at over two metres.
The cost lands on the insurance schedule and on the reserve fund long before any water does.
Conservation Areas and Listed Buildings in Glastonbury
One conservation area, designated in 1976 covering the Abbey site, the High Street and the streets immediately adjacent, and substantially extended in 1992 to add the Tor and the land around it. The July 2010 appraisal divides it into eleven character areas. It is the largest designation in this group in relative terms: 1.135 square kilometres in total, of which 0.611 falls inside the built-up area, covering 18.3 per cent of the town. It is also the only one where a large part of the designation lies outside the built-up area altogether, on the Tor.
The council's 2010 appraisal counts approximately 170 listed buildings or structures in the conservation area, eight of them Grade I and six Grade II*, and notes that the Abbey precinct and St Michael's Church tower are also scheduled monuments. Historic England's current data gives 154 entries in the built-up area with eight Grade I and eight Grade II*, and 144 in the conservation area with nine Grade I, the extra one being St Michael's Church tower on the Tor, which is inside the conservation area but outside the town. The eight in the town are Glastonbury Abbey, the Abbot's Kitchen, the Abbey Tithe Barn, the Tribunal, the George Hotel Pilgrims Inn, the Church of St John the Baptist, St Michael's tower and the Church of St Benedict. The appraisal's Grade I roster should be treated as superseded, since it names the Chalice Well and omits St Benedict while Historic England's current data does the reverse. Four scheduled monuments reach inside the built-up town, a concentration of scheduling within a settlement that none of the other towns here matches.
The sequencing is what catches boards out: consent first, then the Section 20 specification. Specify and consult before consent is in hand and the consultation has to be run again.
Radon in Glastonbury
Class 3 at the town centre, 3 to 5 per cent of homes at or above the action level, and the pattern across the town is geological rather than random. Of the thirteen one-kilometre squares over the built-up area, five are class 1, six are class 3 and two reach class 4 at 5 to 10 per cent. The class 4 squares are the southern Tor and Wearyall side; all five lowest-band squares are on the northern edge toward the moors. No square anywhere in the town reaches class 5.
It is a homeowner question in a house and a communal one in a block. Test the enclosed shared spaces at or below ground level and keep the result with the compliance record.
Licensing and Permitted Development in Glastonbury
Two Article 4 directions apply, and both of them name flats explicitly, which makes this the most directly relevant heritage control of any town in this group. The first, made 2 August 2012, removes permitted development rights for enlarging or altering a dwelling fronting a public highway or accessible space, for roof alterations, for chimneys, flues and soil and vent pipes, for gates, fences and walls at front or side, and for the painting of the exterior of the principal elevation of a dwelling house or flat. The second, made 30 August 2012, removes them for solar photovoltaic and solar thermal equipment on the roof of the principal or side elevation of a dwelling house or flat. Both cover parts of Benedict Street, Bere Lane, Bove Town, Chilkwell Street, Coursing Batch, Fairfield Gardens, Heritage Court, High Street, Lambrook Street, Magdalene Street, Northload Street, Silver Street, Street Road, Victoria Buildings and Wells Road. In practice that means repainting a front elevation and fitting roof-mounted solar on those streets both need express consent, which catches out owners and agents who have checked only the council's summary Article 4 web page: that page omits Glastonbury altogether, and the directions are only found in the underlying schedule document.
This sits outside the lease entirely, but it still reaches us: satisfying the council is not the same as obtaining consent under the lease, and a leaseholder generally needs each.
Planning Policy That Affects Flats in Glastonbury
Decided under the Mendip Local Plan: Part I adopted 15 December 2014, Part II adopted 20 December 2021 and the Part II limited update adopted 25 September 2025, which allocates replacement housing sites in Glastonbury. Core Policy 7 sets the town strategy, treating Glastonbury as a principal settlement serving a market town role with 1,000 new homes, 1,050 to 1,200 new jobs and the re-routing of heavy traffic from Chilkwell Street. There is no made neighbourhood plan; the area was designated in 2016 and the plan remains in production.
Policy in an adopted plan is not guidance. It is what the application is decided against, and a consent granted under the lease does not substitute for it or vice versa.
Changing Managing Agent in Glastonbury
A board does not need a reason to change agent and does not need the outgoing agent's agreement. It needs to follow its own articles and serve whatever notice the management agreement requires. On Glastonbury heritage stock the consents history is what most often turns out to be incomplete, and its absence resurfaces later as a planning problem.
See the handover sequence in full, and our fees, which are a fixed annual amount with no commission on contractor work.
Service charge or accounts query? Email accounts@plymouthblockmanagement.com and quote your development and flat number, or .
Glastonbury Questions
Which Council Does a Block in Glastonbury Deal With?
Somerset Building Control, the council's own service covering the four former district areas. One body, so building control, planning and licensing sit together.
Who Enforces Fire Safety in the Common Parts in Glastonbury?
Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service, as the enforcing authority for the Fire Safety Order.
Who Supplies Water to a Development in Glastonbury?
Wessex Water. A communal supply is the building's contract, not a leaseholder's, so report a loss to common parts through us.
Do We Need Consent for External Works in Glastonbury?
On a listed building or in a conservation area, yes, for much that would be permitted elsewhere. Get it before the Section 20 specification, not after.
Nearby Areas
Talk to Us About Your Building in Glastonbury.
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