Landscape

The South Downs National Park Authority (SDNPA) is committed to encouraging high quality, contextually sensitive and sustainable landscape and building design within the National Park.

National Parks England, of which the South Downs National Park Authority is a member, has produced a detailed paper on high-quality design and other aspects of planning in National Parks.

The collective of 10 National Parks believes urban and landscape design skills are a significant advantage in protecting and enhancing our most precious environments. National Parks provide technical advice at inception and feasibility stages to ensure that design is integral to the planning process.

Download National Parks England’s ‘Enhancing Our National Treasures’ planning paper

Trees: Apply & View

You will need permission to carry out work on trees protected by a Tree Preservation Order (TPO) and may also need it if a tree is located within a conservation...

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Heritage Statements

When considering applications which affect Heritage Assets (which includes listed Buildings, Conservation Areas, Historic Parks and Gardens, Scheduled Monuments, and Historic Battlefields), applicants are expected to describe the significance of...

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Listed buildings

What is a listed building? A Listed Building is a building or structure which is considered to be of ‘special architectural or historic interest’. The Secretary of State for Culture,...

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Historic Environment & Conservation Areas

What do we mean by the historic built environment? The South Downs National Park has a wonderful inheritance of buildings and standing structures from the past thousand years of human...

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South Downs Landscape Character Assessment

National Parks are a landscape designation. They are representative of the very best of UK landscapes in terms of their Natural Beauty, Wildlife and Cultural Heritage. Landscape matters to people and...

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Design in the South Downs

The following pages provide you with information to help you make better design choices for your building project. If your project needs planning permission, it will help you and your...

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Landscape and Planning

The following pages explain how to deliver positive outcomes for landscape through planning applications within the South Downs National Park (SDNP). The basics of how to use proportionate landscape evidence...

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Ecology and Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG)

Biodiversity Net Gain Mandatory Biodiversity net gain (BNG) is an ambitious and world-leading government strategy to ensure that habitat for wildlife is in a measurably better state than it was...

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