Block Management in Wells
Block, estate and leasehold management for Wells. Compliance is tracked against Somerset Council.
Managing a Block in Wells 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 Wells
A block in Wells 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 Wells
The Wells ward held 5,362 households at the 2021 Census with 828 in flats, 15.4 per cent, of which 561 were in purpose-built blocks, 138 in a converted or shared house, 71 in another converted building and 58 over commercial premises. Unusually for this part of Somerset the ward is slightly undersized rather than oversized: all of its output areas are in the city, but the city has three more that sit in Mendip West ward. Taking the whole built-up area gives 5,742 households and 834 flats, 14.5 per cent. Wells has the highest converted and shared house share of these towns, which is what a city with 337 listed buildings and a very large historic core produces: a meaningful part of the flat stock is in buildings never designed as flats.
Flood Risk in Wells
Wells has the most unusual flood position of any town covered here, and it is worth stating carefully because it cuts both ways. It is the only one of these towns whose centre sits inside an Environment Agency flood area, the East Somerset Rivers alert, which covers 15.8 per cent of the built-up area, by a wide margin the largest such footprint in this group. Yet no flood warning area covers Wells at all: the River Sheppey warning area stops 454 metres short of the built-up area and names Croscombe, Dulcote and Coxley on the city's edge rather than any street inside it. So Wells has the largest designated flood footprint of these towns and no warning service within it, which means an emergency plan for a block here cannot rely on receiving a flood warning. The council's evidence base maps flood defence structures within Wells but lists them by anonymous reference only, so no Wells defence can be named, dated or costed from the published record; district-wide, defences are described as mostly offering a 100 to 150 year standard of protection.
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 Wells
One conservation area, designated in 1970 by Somerset County Council, with the boundary revised in 1989 to add 7 to 15 Priory Road, the sports field east of New Street and the Vicarage in St Thomas Street, and extended again in October 2011 to take in North Road, Bath Road, Priory Road, Ethel Street, West Street, Tucker Street, Portway and Portway Avenue. The appraisal was approved on 19 October 2011 and divides the area into eight character areas. Two nearby designations should not be attributed to the city: the Mendip Hospital and Dinder conservation areas both fall outside the Wells parish boundary.
This is the densest heritage of any town covered on this site, and the council says so itself. The appraisal records over 330 listed building entries in Wells and notes the very high proportion at the upper grades: 25 Grade I, 8 per cent of the total, and 36 Grade II*, 11 per cent. Historic England's current data matches almost exactly at 337 entries in the parish with the same 25 and 36, of which 323 are inside the conservation area. For comparison, most towns of this size have one Grade I building or none. The cathedral alone accounts for four separate Grade I entries, the Bishop's Palace group four more, and Vicars' Close six across its two terraces, chapel and hall. Three scheduled monuments and two registered parks and gardens sit inside the parish, the Bishop's Palace grounds registered at Grade II* covering 32.79 hectares and Milton Lodge at Grade II. One claim to avoid: Vicars' Close is often described as the oldest purely residential street in England, but the council's own wording is only that it is said to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited streets in Europe, and the stronger version is not supported by any official source. There is no adopted local list of non-designated heritage assets, only one described as being developed in 2011.
It also narrows the contractor list and lengthens the programme, both of which belong in the Section 20 specification rather than in a surprise later.
Radon in Wells
Wells is sharply split, and it would be wrong to call it either a high or a low radon town. The city centre returns the lowest class on the scale, where the published wording is that all parts of the square are in the lowest band with under 1 per cent of homes at or above the action level and that radon measurement is not advised. But of the thirteen one-kilometre squares covering the built-up area, four are class 4 at 5 to 10 per cent and two are class 5 at 10 to 30 per cent, and between them those cover 54 per cent of the city by area against 39 per cent in the lowest band. A block on the Mendip side of Wells and a block in the centre are in genuinely different positions, and the city-centre reading should never be applied to the whole city.
That is national advice about the ground, not about the building. The same map excludes basements, cellars and underground spaces at every band, so an enclosed plant room, undercroft or lower-ground flat is still worth a look even here, and whatever is found belongs with the compliance record.
Licensing and Permitted Development in Wells
Three Article 4 directions apply in Wells, more than any other town covered here, and they remove different rights on different streets, so which street a block stands on decides which controls apply. The first, made 9 August 2000, covers Market Street, St Cuthbert Street and the High Street and restricts the demolition of all or part of a gate, fence, wall or other means of enclosure within the curtilage of a dwelling. The second, remade 6 July 1999, covers a long list including parts of St Thomas Street, St Andrew Street and St Cuthbert Street, St John Street, Tor Street, part of Silver Street, Southover, part of South Street, Market Street, parts of Tucker Street and Priory Road, Lorne Place, Priory Place, St John's Court, Beckett Place, Foster Court and part of Chamberlain Street, and it restricts the installation, replacement or alteration of any window, door or other opening fronting a highway, waterway or open space, and any other alteration to the roof fronting the same. That one bites hardest on block management, because a window replacement programme on those streets needs express consent. The third, made 1 September 2011 alongside the conservation area extension, covers parts of Tucker Street, West Street, Ethel Street, Portway and Portway Avenue, Priory Road, Silver Street, Bath Road, North Road and North Grove, and removes six classes of right including roof alterations, chimneys, flues and soil and vent pipes, and gates, fences and walls.
Two permissions get confused here. The council's requirements are public law and apply whatever the lease says; consent under the lease is private law and applies whatever the council says. A leaseholder letting a flat usually needs both.
Planning Policy That Affects Flats in Wells
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 includes a Wells allocation for 47 dwellings at the Glastonbury Road police station site. The Wells Neighbourhood Plan was made on 14 February 2024 following a referendum on 25 January 2024 in which 1,372 votes were cast, 1,114 in favour and 255 against with 3 rejected papers, 81 per cent of the vote. The neighbourhood area is the whole parish, designated by Mendip District Council's cabinet on 8 September 2014, and the examination was carried out by Deborah McCann. One caution when checking this: the council's own Wells page is still titled as a plan in production and omits the decision documents, contradicting the council's register of made plans, so the register and the decision statement are the sources to rely on.
Worth knowing before a block plans a conversion, a subdivision or a change of use, because it decides whether the scheme is arguable at all, well before the consent question under the lease arises.
Changing Managing Agent in Wells
Two questions stall most boards: who has authority to decide, and what happens to the money. The articles answer the first, the management agreement's notice clause the second. On Wells 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 .
Wells Questions
Which Council Does a Block in Wells 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 Wells?
Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service, as the enforcing authority for the Fire Safety Order.
Who Supplies Water to a Development in Wells?
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 Wells?
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
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