Home
Menu
A Victorian Gothic civic building with a clock tower

Planning permission in Dover

Most single-storey rear extensions within the national permitted development limits don't need planning permission in Dover. The rules are stricter in its 60 conservation areas, where side extensions, two-storey extensions and loft dormers need permission. Check your address to see which rules apply.

Dover at a glance

Conservation areas
60
Article 4 areas
55
Protected landscapes
Kent Downs
Planning decisions
Dover District Council

How many conservation areas are there in Dover?

Dover has 60 conservation areas. In a conservation area, permitted development rights are reduced: side extensions, two-storey extensions, loft dormers and cladding all need planning permission, and many councils add Article 4 directions on top.

Read more: extensions, loft dormers, garden rooms and solar panels in a conservation area.

Does Dover have Article 4 directions?

Dover has published 55 Article 4 areas. Inside them, some permitted development rights are removed, so work that would normally be allowed needs planning permission.

55 of the published areas don't say which rights they remove. Our checker tells people at those addresses to check with the council.

Directions listed by Dover:

What is an Article 4 direction?

Is any of Dover in a national park, National Landscape or green belt?

National parks and National Landscapes restrict permitted development in similar ways to conservation areas. Read more: extensions, loft dormers and garden rooms.

Listed buildings and protected trees in Dover

Listed buildings everywhere in England are recorded by Historic England, and the checker looks for them at every address. Dover also publishes 1,699 listed building outlines, which show exactly which building is listed.

Dover publishes its tree preservation orders (1,921 areas and individual trees), so we can flag protected trees near an address.

What planning data does Dover publish?

DataStatusRecords
Conservation area boundaries Published 103
Article 4 direction boundaries Published 55
Listed building outlines Published 1,699
Tree preservation order areas Published 556
Protected trees Published 1,365

Planning work on a home in Dover? Put a pin on your house and we'll check it against all of this.

Start a check

Other councils in South East

Data from planning.data.gov.uk, published by Dover District Council and national bodies under the Open Government Licence, last updated here on 31 October 2026. Dover District Council website.