Freeholder Consent and Alterations in Dorchester

Dorchester carries the only Article 4 direction Dorset Council has made itself, and it is the one direction anywhere in the county that reaches ordinary maintenance. In force since 10 June 2020 across the Dorchester conservation area, it removes permitted development for the erection, construction, maintenance, improvement, alteration or demolition of any gate, fence, wall or other means of enclosure adjacent to a highway or open space, and the definition of highway expressly includes any footway the public may use as of right, together with the verge. Maintenance is named in the direction. Repointing or repairing a front boundary wall at a Dorchester block therefore needs planning permission, where the same work anywhere else in Dorset would not. The council warns that unauthorised work in an Article 4 area can be reversed at the owner's expense.