Block Management in Somerton
A conservation area since 1970 with no appraisal, and radon reaching class 5.
Somerton residents' management companies, RTM companies and freeholders can appoint us to run their block, from compliance to leaseholder consents. Radon comes first: the town centre is class 4 and roughly a quarter of the town reaches class 5, with measurement advised throughout. The 1970 conservation area has never had an appraisal, so the boundary plan and the statutory duty are the whole of the guidance.
What We Would Put First for a Block in Somerton
Recommend Radon Measurement Everywhere
Four squares are class 4 and three are class 5 at 10 to 30 per cent, and none is in the lowest band. For a Somerton block we would recommend measurement in ground-floor communal areas and plant rooms and keep results in the compliance record.
CompliancePrepare for Consent Without an Appraisal
With no appraisal for the 1970 conservation area, there is no written character assessment to argue a scheme against. We would allow for that in Section 20 planning and confirm the position with Somerset Council before specifying.
Major works and Section 20Find Listed Buildings by Address
135 entries fall inside the parish, one Grade I and twelve Grade II*, but none is listed under the name Town Hall or Buttercross. We would check a block's listing by address before obtaining consents.
ConsentsManaging a Block in Somerton 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
What It Costs to Move a Block in Somerton to Us
Management is a fixed annual fee, quoted for the building and agreed before we start. We take no commission and no third-party incentives, so the fee is the whole of what we earn from the building. Taking a block on carries a one-off start-up fee, set by size:
| Block size | Fee |
|---|---|
| Start-up fee, up to 10 units | £420.00 |
| Start-up fee, up to 25 units | £540.00 |
| Start-up fee, 50 units and above | £660.00 |
Taken from our published Additional Services price list, PBM Form #01-27 rev.6, effective 23 June 2025. All fees quoted are inclusive of VAT. See the full price list and how a handover works.
A Quarter of Somerton Sits a Band Higher
Class 4 at the town centre, a maximum radon potential of 5 to 10 per cent of homes at or above the action level, with the published advice that radon measurement is advised. Across the seven one-kilometre squares covering the built-up area, four are class 4 and account for 77 per cent of the town by area while three are class 5 at 10 to 30 per cent and account for the remaining 23 per cent. So roughly a quarter of Somerton sits a band above what the town-centre reading suggests, and none of it is in the lowest band.
The Ward Figure Understates Somerton's Flats
The published Somerton ward figures are 238 flats among 4,533 households, 5.3 per cent, but that ward is heavily oversized and the figure should not be used for the town. Only 17 of its 32 output areas are actually in Somerton; the rest are at Keinton Mandeville, Long Sutton, Barton St David, Charlton Mackrell, Charlton Adam, Kingsdon and Compton Dundon. The town's own built-up area held 2,330 households, barely half the ward, with 183 in flats, 7.9 per cent, made up of 138 in purpose-built blocks, 19 in a converted or shared house, 14 in another converted building and 12 over commercial premises. The ward figure understates the town's flat share by 2.6 percentage points, so the direction of the error runs against the town rather than for it. Even corrected, Somerton is the lowest flat share in this group and sits well below the Somerset average of 12.7 per cent.
Only a Small Edge of Cary Alert Coverage
Somerton has the lightest flood position of any town covered in this part of Somerset, and the finding is a verified negative rather than an absence of research. No Environment Agency flood warning area covers the town at all: the nearest one, on the Yeo between Limington and Langport, stops nearly two and a half kilometres short of the built-up area, and no warning area anywhere names a Somerton street. What does reach the town is an alert, the Yeo and Parrett upper reaches area, which lists the River Cary among its watercourses and describes the stretch from North Barrow to Somerton, and it overlaps just 3.9 per cent of the built-up area. So the honest summary is a small edge of alert coverage on the Cary and no warning service, which for a town sitting this close to the Somerset Levels is worth stating explicitly rather than leaving to assumption.
No Appraisal Since Designation in January 1970
One conservation area, designated on 5 January 1970, and no appraisal has ever been published for it. That absence has a practical consequence: where a town has an appraisal, a scheme can be argued against a written character assessment with named positive buildings and identified negative features, and here there is no such document, so the boundary plan and the general statutory duty are the whole of the guidance. Early 1970 also makes this one of the older designations in the county, predating the local government reorganisation that created the district which later inherited it.
135 entries on the National Heritage List fall inside the parish, one of them Grade I and twelve Grade II*, a high proportion at the upper grades for a town of this size. That count is computed by intersecting Historic England's open data with the parish boundary, because no council-published total exists. One trap is worth recording for anyone working here: despite the obvious candidates in the market place, no building in Somerton is listed under the name Town Hall or Buttercross, so a search on either term returns nothing and the buildings have to be found by address instead.
No Neighbourhood Plan and No Article 4
Decided under the South Somerset Local Plan 2006 to 2028, adopted in March 2015. There is no neighbourhood plan and no neighbourhood area has been designated, so there is no local plan-making process running here that a development proposal would need to engage with. There is no Article 4 direction either, which means permitted development rights in the conservation area are the national ones and have not been withdrawn.
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Somerton Questions
Does Somerton Flood from the Levels?
Somerton has the lightest flood position of the towns covered in this part of Somerset. No warning area covers the town; the nearest, on the Yeo between Limington and Langport, stops nearly two and a half kilometres short. The Yeo and Parrett upper reaches alert overlaps just 3.9 per cent of the built-up area, on the River Cary.
How Many Flats Are There in Somerton?
The town's built-up area held 2,330 households with 183 in flats, 7.9 per cent: 138 in purpose-built blocks, 19 in a converted or shared house, 14 in another converted building and 12 over commercial premises. The published ward figure of 5.3 per cent includes villages such as Keinton Mandeville and Long Sutton and should not be used for the town.
Can We Rely on Permitted Development Rights in the Conservation Area?
There is no Article 4 direction, so permitted development rights in the Somerton conservation area are the national ones and have not been withdrawn. There is also no neighbourhood plan or designated neighbourhood area, and decisions are made under the South Somerset Local Plan 2006 to 2028, adopted in March 2015.
Nearby Areas
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