Window planning rules in Hassocks and nearby villages

Hassocks stops just short of the South Downs National Park boundary, and nearly every village around it has a conservation area. Who decides, and what needs permission, changes within a mile or two.

Who is the planning authority?

Hassocks, Keymer, Hurstpierpoint, Sayers Common and most of Albourne: Mid Sussex District Council.

Clayton, Ditchling and the south-west corner of Albourne parish: the South Downs National Park Authority, because they lie inside the National Park. Ditchling is in East Sussex and Lewes District, but the National Park Authority is still the planning authority there.

Ordinary houses

Replacing windows on a house is usually permitted development, so no application is made, provided the new frames keep broadly the character of the old. That covers most of Hassocks: the village centre has no conservation area of its own.

Conservation areas

Mid Sussex has conservation areas at Keymer (1989), Hurstpierpoint (1972, extended 1989 and 1999), Hurst Wickham (1989), Langton Lane (1999), Albourne (1989) and Clayton (1984, joined into one area in 1999). Ditchling's was designated in 1969. Houses in these areas generally keep the right to fit lookalike replacements; only an Article 4 direction takes it away.

Article 4 directions

The National Park Authority's register lists an Article 4 direction for the Ditchling Conservation Area, made in 1972 and confirmed in 1973. Mid Sussex's guide to its conservation areas records Article 4 directions in parts of Cuckfield and Lindfield, not in the villages around Hassocks. Check the current position before ordering.

Neighbourhood plans

Three neighbourhood plans cover the area, and each is part of the development plan the planners must use. The Hassocks Neighbourhood Plan (2014 to 2031) was approved at referendum in March 2020; its Policy 7 lists what to respect in the Keymer and Clayton conservation areas, and Policy 9 asks all new work to have regard to the parish townscape appraisal. The Hurstpierpoint and Sayers Common plan was made in 2015, and the Ditchling, Westmeston and Streat plan in 2018. These plans matter most when an application is needed; they do not create new controls over ordinary window replacements.

Side windows on upper floors

One point catches people out even on an ordinary house. The national guidance on the Planning Portal says that new upper-floor windows in a side wall should be obscure-glazed and either fixed or opening only above 1.7 metres from the floor. If you want to add a side window upstairs, or make an existing one bigger, check with the council before ordering.

Building Regulations still apply

Planning and Building Regulations are separate. Even where no planning application is needed, every replacement window must meet the energy standard in Approved Document L, the ventilation rules on trickle vents, the safety glazing rules for low glass and glass near doors, and the escape-window rules for upstairs bedrooms. Under FENSA the installer self-certifies, and the certificate that arrives afterwards is worth keeping for when you sell. For listed buildings, the regulations are applied with some flexibility where full compliance would harm the building, so raise it early.