Block Management in Highbridge
Block, estate and leasehold management for Highbridge. Compliance is tracked against Somerset Council.
Managing a Block in Highbridge 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 Highbridge
A block in Highbridge 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 Highbridge
The Highbridge and Burnham South ward held 4,484 households at the 2021 Census with 871 in flats, 19.4 per cent, made up of 742 in purpose-built blocks, 57 in a converted or shared house, 33 in another converted building and 39 over commercial premises. The purpose-built share is high: 85 per cent of the ward's flats are in blocks rather than conversions, which is the opposite of the pattern along the seafront a few miles north. The ward is a tight fit by area but a composite one, since it also takes in southern Burnham-on-Sea, so the figures describe the two together.
Flood Risk in Highbridge
Tidal, and unusually the whole town is in it. The Sedgemoor strategic flood risk assessment states that tidal flood risk is the main source of flooding to Burnham-on-Sea and Highbridge, and that all of Highbridge and almost all of Burnham-on-Sea fall within tidal Flood Zone 3a. The River Brue runs along the southern edge of the town and is tidal only as far up as Highbridge Clyse. The town centre sits inside the Environment Agency warning area for the Somerset coast at Burnham-on-Sea, Huntspill, Highbridge and Berrow, which is classified against the Bristol Channel and names West Huntspill, Edithmead, East Brent and Rooksbridge alongside Highbridge itself; that containment was checked against the area's own polygon rather than inferred from proximity. Recorded tidal events run 1979, 1981, 1983 and 1990, with surface water problems on Highbridge Road and around the hospital. The shoreline management policy for the frontage is to hold the line across short, medium and long term. The Bridgwater tidal barrier does not name Highbridge among its beneficiaries, so it should not be offered as protection here.
For a block that reaches leaseholders through the insurance premium and excess, and through the management pack when someone sells.
Conservation Areas and Listed Buildings in Highbridge
There is no conservation area in Highbridge at all, and that is a checked negative rather than a gap. The council's list of the fourteen conservation areas designated across the former Sedgemoor area runs from Axbridge through the three Bridgwater areas to Wedmore and contains no Highbridge entry, and a point query against the national dataset at the town centre returns nothing, as does a query across a thirteen kilometre box around it. The nearest is the Burnham-on-Sea area, designated 27 January 1988, whose boundary does not reach Highbridge. For a managing agent that is simplifying rather than limiting: external redecoration, window replacement and rooftop plant here are ordinary permitted development questions rather than heritage consent questions.
Nine entries on the National Heritage List sit within a two kilometre box on the town centre, and every one of them is Grade II. There is no Grade I and no Grade II* building in Highbridge. That count is computed from Historic England's open data rather than published by the council, which gives only a district figure of over 1,100 listed buildings across the former Sedgemoor area.
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 Highbridge
Lowest band, with no variation anywhere. All sixteen one-kilometre squares across the town return the lowest class on the UK Health Security Agency and British Geological Survey mapping, which states that all parts of the square fall in the lowest band with under 1 per cent of homes at or above the action level, and advises that radon measurement is not needed. Of the Somerset towns covered here this is the lowest reading of the set.
In a block the part worth attention is the enclosed communal space at or below ground level: plant rooms, undercrofts, basements and bin stores. Measuring is inexpensive, takes three months, and the result belongs with the compliance record.
Planning Policy That Affects Flats in Highbridge
Decided under the Sedgemoor Local Plan 2011 to 2032, adopted 20 February 2019. Highbridge is covered by a made neighbourhood plan shared with its neighbour, the Burnham and Highbridge Area Neighbourhood Plan, made on 17 October 2018 following a referendum on 20 September 2018 carried by 2,658 votes to 358 on a 17.62 per cent turnout, with Burnham and Highbridge Town Council as the qualifying body. No Article 4 direction is identified for Highbridge, though the council's register is not in a state that allows the point to be put beyond doubt: its only Sedgemoor entry names no town and the underlying document link is dead.
This is development plan policy, so it binds the council when it decides an application and it binds a leaseholder's alteration just as it binds a developer's scheme. It sits alongside, not instead of, the consent the lease requires.
Changing Managing Agent in Highbridge
Changing agent is the company's decision, taken the way its articles require. The only part with a deadline is the notice the outgoing agent is contractually owed. On Highbridge 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 .
Highbridge Questions
Which Council Does a Block in Highbridge 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 Highbridge?
Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service, as the enforcing authority for the Fire Safety Order.
Who Supplies Water to a Development in Highbridge?
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 Highbridge?
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 Highbridge.
A free, no-obligation proposal, written so it can be circulated to a board.