Policy information sourced from the Sutton Local Plan 2016-2031.

General

a. The council will conserve and, where practicable, enhance the borough’s historic environment. This comprises: Listed Buildings and structures, Scheduled Ancient Monuments, Conservation Areas, Historic Parks and Gardens, Areas of Special Local Character, Locally Listed Buildings and undesignated archaeological remains.

b. Development that has an impact upon a heritage asset will be expected to conserve and, where practicable, enhance its significance. The council will expect that new development integrates into the historic environment and will look for opportunities from new development affecting heritage assets and their settings to enhance or better reveal their significance.

c. Great weight will be given to conservation of Sutton’s heritage assets. Any harm to the significance of a designated or non-designated heritage asset, or their loss, must be justified. Proposals will be weighed against:

  1. the public benefits of the proposal.
  2. whether it has been demonstrated that all reasonable efforts have been made to sustain the existing use, find new uses or mitigate the extent of the harm to the significance of the asset.
  3. whether the works proposed are the minimum required to secure the long-term beneficial use and retain the significance and conservation of the asset.

d. Proposals likely to affect the significance of a heritage asset, including the contribution made by its setting, should be accompanied by a description of its significance in sufficient detail to allow the potential impacts to be adequately assessed.

Archaeological Priority Areas

k. The council will:

  1. in consultation with the Greater London Archaeological Advisory Service, require the necessary level of investigation and recording for development proposals that affect, or have the potential to affect Sutton’s archaeological heritage. Remains of archaeological importance, whether scheduled or not, should be protected in situ, or if this is not possible, excavated and removed as directed by the Greater London Archaeological Advisory Service.
  2. expect the applicant to have sought pre-application advice from the Greater London Archaeological Advisory Service before submitting an archaeological evaluation.

l. Where a scheme should be submitted for archaeological site-based survey and/or intervention, in addition to the method statement it will need to include analysis, publication, and archive deposition of the material and the records made, and for the public dissemination of the results to further understanding.

For Archaeological Priority Areas see Appendix 9, Schedule 9.A, Maps 9.1 to 9.22 and Policies Map.