Planning permission in Three Rivers
Three Rivers District Council decides planning applications in Three Rivers. This page shows the protected areas that affect what homeowners can build without planning permission, and the planning data Three Rivers publishes.
Conservation areas
Three Rivers has 19 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.
- Abbots Langley
- Batchworth Heath
- Chorleywood, Station Estate
- Chorleywood Common
- Coppermill Lock
- Croxley Green
- Croxley Green, Dickinson Square
- Frith Wood
- Grove Mill
- Heronsgate
- Hunton Bridge
- Loudwater
- Moor Park Estate
- Outer Loudwater
- Oxhey Hall
- Rickmansworth, Cedars Avenue
- Rickmansworth, Nightingale Road
- Rickmansworth, Upper Nightingale Road
- Rickmansworth Town Centre
Read more: extensions, loft dormers, garden rooms and solar panels in a conservation area.
Article 4 directions
Three Rivers hasn't published any Article 4 boundaries on planning.data.gov.uk. Most councils have at least one Article 4 direction, often in conservation areas, so check the council's website or ask its planning team before relying on permitted development.
What is an Article 4 direction?
National parks, National Landscapes and green belt
- National Landscape (Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty) in or bordering Three Rivers: Chilterns.
- There is green belt in or bordering Three Rivers. 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. Three Rivers 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.
Three Rivers 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 Three Rivers publishes
| Data | Status | Records |
|---|---|---|
| Conservation area boundaries | Published | 19 |
| Article 4 direction boundaries | Not published | 0 |
| Listed building outlines | Not published | 0 |
| Tree preservation order areas | Not published | 0 |
| Protected trees | Not published | 0 |
Planning work on a home in Three Rivers? Put a pin on your house and we'll check it against all of this.
Start a checkData from planning.data.gov.uk, published by Three Rivers District Council and national bodies under the Open Government Licence, last updated here on 30 October 2026. Three Rivers District Council website.