Replacement windows in Findon, inside the South Downs National Park

Findon is the one village we cover that sits wholly inside the South Downs National Park, four miles north of Worthing, between Cissbury Ring and the A24.

The whole parish is in the Park, and since April 2011 the National Park Authority, not Arun District Council, has been its planning authority. The village has a conservation area centred on The Square, taking in short stretches of Horsham Road and School Hill, and the neighbourhood plan records that a second, at Nepcote, has been under consideration. There are 26 listed buildings in the parish, including the Grade I church of St John the Baptist, built of flint, and the Wattle House on Nepcote Green, home of the equipment for the sheep fair held on the green each September.

Flint cottage with red brick dressings, white casement windows and a low flint garden wall with a wooden gate, typical of older Findon houses

The older buildings are mostly flint or brick with some render, which is the setting for flush casements with the original bar pattern, or timber on a listed house.

The later village

Most homes in Findon are newer. The neighbourhood plan lists the phases: 1930s council estates at The Oval, Homewood and The Quadrangle; post-war bungalows on The Chase and Beech Road; and late twentieth-century estates at Convent Gardens and Fox Lea. Over half the homes in the parish are detached. These houses suit aluminium or a plain uPVC casement.

Planning in the Park

Being in the Park does not by itself mean you need permission to replace windows on a house. Outside the conservation area and on an unlisted house, like-for-like replacement is normally permitted development. We have not found an Article 4 direction for windows in Findon. The neighbourhood plan does say the parish council will consider asking for permitted development rights to be removed on buildings of character, so check with the National Park Authority if your house is old and you are changing its look.

Findon Valley, to the south, is part of Worthing and a different place for planning purposes.

For a Findon survey, call 01903 948046, or send your details.

Background: Findon on Wikipedia.