Section 20 Consultation and Major Works in Bristol
One published tribunal decision from in and around Bristol, and what it decided. The figures Bristol City Council publishes, rather than a national average.
- Local authority
- Bristol City Council
- Service
- Section 20 consultation
- Published decisions
- 1 tribunal decision
- From our Plymouth office
- Approx. 121 miles
Section 20 Cases Decided in and Around Bristol
| Development | Case | What the tribunal decided, and why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Factory No.1, East Street, Bedminster | CHI/00HB/LDC/2023/0047 8 August 2023 | Dispensation for replacing three failed communal heat exchangers was granted, but on three expensive conditions: hand every report and all correspondence on the system's design and liability to every contributing leaseholder, do not recommission without a ballot unless the cause of failure has been found and fixed, and absorb the costs of the application. Dispensation is rarely refused but it is routinely conditional. |
Building Control in Bristol
The fixed fee a Bristol block pays is not the fixed fee on the price list. Bristol's Table C rates, £220 for replacement windows or for upgrading a thermal element including re-roofing, apply to a single domestic building. Its own note says replacement windows in non-domestic buildings are charged on total estimated cost instead, so communal work in a block goes to Table D and is priced by value: £265 up to 5,000, 510 up to 20,000, 905 up to 50,000, and above that by quotation. Bristol publishes no notice period for booking an inspection and no target for issuing a completion certificate.
Consent for External Works in Bristol
Bristol's window guidance is written with blocks in mind and is unusually direct. It says that where a property is sub-divided into flats, introducing double glazing to just one dwelling or on one storey affects the appearance of the whole building, that uPVC should never be considered even on unlisted buildings, and that slim profile double glazing is not appropriate in multi-pane windows and will be resisted in listed buildings with typical Georgian sashes, with secondary glazing preferred in later Victorian ones. In Clifton Village an Article 4 direction in force since July 1974 removes permitted development for any work affecting the external appearance of the properties, which is the strongest and oldest control in the city and the one that catches routine block maintenance hardest.
Planning in Bristol
Two Bristol requirements catch out cyclical works. An Ecological Screening Assessment is required for almost every planning application, with only a short list of exceptions, unless a valid ecological report already accompanies it. And drawings marked not to scale or do not scale will not be accepted: joinery is wanted at 1:10, and where traditional features are being replaced the existing joinery sections are wanted at 1:1 or 1:2, showing the wall the window sits in so the depth of reveal is visible. Pre-application advice is locally priced from £520 including VAT for minor and householder work, with a response inside 30 working days.
What We Do About Section 20 Consultation in Bristol
We manage this rather than advise on it. In Bristol that means working from the 1 decision above and from what Bristol City Council actually publishes, not from a national template:
- Keep the consultation paperwork in the state the tribunal has expected to see it in locally, from the first notice onward.
- Put Bristol City Council's actual charges into the estimate, including the ones that only appear once scaffolding goes up.
- Settle consent before the specification is written. Getting that order wrong is what turns a straightforward repair into a retrospective one.
- Read the plan that is in force now, including where Bristol City Council has said its own policies are out of date.
Fixed annual fee, no commission on contractor work.
How This Works, in General
The general law, for every area: Major Works and Section 20 Consultation.