Planning permission in Lancaster

Lancaster City Council decides planning applications in Lancaster, except inside the national park, where the park authority does. This page shows the protected areas that affect what homeowners can build without planning permission, and the planning data Lancaster publishes.

Conservation areas

Lancaster has 38 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.

• Arkholme
• Bolton-le-Sands
• Borwick
• Brookhouse
• Cantsfield
• Carnforth
• Dolphinholme
• Glasson Dock
• Greaves Road
• Gressingham
• Halton
• Heysham
• Hornby
• Lancaster
• Lancaster - Aldcliffe Road
• Lancaster - Bath Mill
• Lancaster - Cannon Hill
• Lancaster - Lancaster Moor
• Lancaster - Westfield Memorial Village
• Lancaster - Williamson Park
• Melling
• Morecambe
• Morecambe West End
• Nether Burrow
• Nether Kellet
• Over Kellet
• Overton
• Priest Hutton
• Slyne-with-Hest
• Slyne Road
• Sunderland Point
• Tunstall
• Warton
• Wennington
• Whittington
• Wray
• Wrayton
• Yealand Conyers and Redmayne

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

Article 4 directions

Lancaster has published 34 Article 4 areas. Inside them, some permitted development rights are removed, so work that would normally be allowed needs planning permission.

The rights they remove most often:

• House extensions (Part 1 Class A, in 34 of the areas)
• Walls, fences and gates (Part 2 Class A, in 34 of the areas)
• Painting the outside of a building (Part 2 Class C, in 34 of the areas)
• Porches (Part 1 Class D, in 32 of the areas)
• Satellite dishes and antennas (Part 1 Class H, in 29 of the areas)
• Other roof alterations, such as rooflights (Part 1 Class C, in 29 of the areas)
• Chimneys, flues and soil pipes (Part 1 Class G, in 23 of the areas)
• Loft dormers and other roof extensions (Part 1 Class B, in 6 of the areas)
• Garden buildings and outbuildings (Part 1 Class E, in 5 of the areas)
• Hard surfaces, such as paved driveways (Part 1 Class F, in 5 of the areas)

What is an Article 4 direction?

National parks, National Landscapes and green belt

• National park in or bordering Lancaster: Yorkshire Dales.
• National Landscapes (Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty) in or bordering Lancaster: Arnside & Silverdale, Forest of Bowland.
• There is green belt in or bordering Lancaster. Householder permitted development rights apply as normal in the green belt, but if you need planning permission, green belt policy limits how much a home can be enlarged.

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

Listed buildings everywhere in England are recorded by Historic England, and the checker looks for them at every address. Lancaster doesn't publish listed building outlines, so where a listed building is recorded near an address, we ask the homeowner to check whether it's theirs.

Lancaster doesn't publish its tree preservation orders as data. If there are mature trees near your project, ask the council whether any are protected before you start.

What Lancaster publishes

Data from planning.data.gov.uk, published by Lancaster City Council and national bodies under the Open Government Licence, last updated here on 30 October 2026. Lancaster City Council website.