# Crestway, 246 Dover House Road, Wandsworth (porch canopy)

- **Decision:** dismissed, 16 September 2026
- **Decided by:** Planning Inspector: D Cleary
- **Authority:** Wandsworth (London)
- **Appeal reference:** 6012827
- **Application reference:** 2025/3444
- **Procedure:** householder
- **Development:** Alterations to front portico (smaller replacement of an unauthorised open-sided hipped canopy)
- **Site context:** conservation-area, inside-settlement
- **Green Belt:** no
- **Framework applied:** August 2026 NPPF
- **Determinative policies:** HE6(1), HE6(3), HE6(4)
- **Development plan policies:** Wandsworth Local Plan 2023-2038 LP1, LP3, LP5
- **Main issues:** character and appearance of CA
- **Tags:** householder, conservation-area, heritage-harm-decisive, private-benefit-not-public, he6-substantial-weight

## Summary
A reduced porch canopy on a house in the Westmead Conservation Area, Wandsworth, was dismissed. It sets out the new HE6 sequence plainly: substantial weight to conservation (HE6(1)), any harm of considerable importance and weight (HE6(3)), then the weighing of harm against public benefits (HE6(4)). Private weather-protection benefits carried limited weight.

## Issues and findings
- **Transition.** "While the format has altered, the considerations material to this decision have not fundamentally changed" (DL ¶3).
- **CA: HARM.** "Notwithstanding the reduction in size, the proposed canopy would still introduce a modern, visually assertive feature … a prominent and incongruous addition that undermines the visual cohesiveness of this part of the WCA" (DL ¶9).
- **HE6 sequence.** "The Framework confirms that substantial weight should be given to the conservation of designated heritage assets (HE6(1)), and that any harm to such an asset is a matter of considerable importance and weight (HE6(3)). HE6(4) requires that harm … must be weighed against any public benefits … such benefits are private in nature and carry limited weight" (DL ¶11).

## Planning balance
HE6(4): limited private benefit against considerable-weight harm to the conservation area.

## What made the difference
Reducing the size did not change the design logic the previous inspector had found harmful. Only a change of form (for example, removing the canopy or matching the original porch detailing) would have altered the outcome.

## Transferable points
- The new HE6 sequence is HE6(1) substantial weight, then HE6(3) harm of considerable importance and weight, then the HE6(4) public-benefit balance. Note that the 2026 wording no longer grades harm as "less than substantial" (DL ¶11).
- Shrinking a feature previously found harmful does not overcome the objection where its form and relationship to the host building stay the same (DL ¶8-9).

## Policy findings
- **HE6(1): harm (substantial weight).** substantial weight to conservation of designated heritage assets (DL 11)
- **HE6(3): harm (considerable weight).** canopy remains prominent, incongruous modern feature undermining cohesive group of four houses in Westmead CA (DL 8-9, 11)
- **HE6(4): fail.** weather protection is a private benefit of limited weight; does not outweigh harm (DL 11)

## Key facts
- Previous appeal against the larger existing unauthorised canopy dismissed (ref 3360192, 23 May 2025)
- Reduced width and projection but same form and relationship to the facade
- Early 20th-century suburban estate CA; group of four largely unaltered detached houses

## Sources
- https://appeal-planning-decision.service.gov.uk/comment-planning-appeal/appeals/6012827
- https://appeal-planning-decision.service.gov.uk/published-document/2dad7266-0743-4685-b423-1c8bea30cc5a

---

Source: https://planningdistilled.org/research/england/nppf-navigator/decisions/PINS-6012827.html

A summary of a public planning decision, written from the decision letter. Not legal advice. © Planning Distilled. Released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/): share and adapt freely, with credit to Planning Distilled. Quotations from decision letters, plans and the Framework remain the copyright of their publishers.