Solar planning in Sefton: panels, conservation areas and permission
Solar panels in Sefton: the permitted development rules, Sefton Council's conservation areas and how to check yours, and the towns we cover there.
Sefton Council is the planning authority for Southport among the towns we cover. Whether panels on a house there need the council’s permission comes down to two things: the national rules for England, and whether the house sits in one of the council’s conservation areas or is listed.
Solar planning in Sefton: the rules that apply
In England, panels on a house are normally permitted development under Part 14, Class A of the General Permitted Development Order 2015, as amended on 27 August 2026. On a pitched roof they may stand no more than 0.2 metres proud and no higher than the roof’s highest point; on a flat roof the array may rise no more than 0.6 metres above it; on a wall, 0.2 metres where it abuts a highway and 0.4 metres elsewhere. A listed house has no such rights, and in a conservation area nothing may go on a wall, balcony or roof enclosure that fronts a highway; a flat-roof array on that land needs the council’s prior approval of its appearance first.
Conservation areas in Sefton
There are 25 declared conservation areas throughout Sefton. Article 4 Directions apply at Moor Park (confirmed 8 July 2010) and Sefton Village (approved in 1983). Six Sefton conservation areas are on the national Heritage at Risk Register, four of them in Southport: Lord Street, North Meols, Promenade and West Birkdale.
The areas the council lists are:
- Lord Street
- Promenade
- North Meols
- Churchtown Village
- West Birkdale
Checking an address: The boundaries can be viewed on the council’s SIMON map, and each area has its own map link. Read it on Sefton Council’s conservation-area page.
Each town we cover in Sefton has its own pages for solar panels in Southport, with that town’s own PVGIS figures, network and conservation areas.
The network side
Planning is one form; the network operator is another. The towns here are on SP Manweb (bar homes on Southport’s West Lancashire edge, on SP Electricity North West), and every system is notified to the operator under G98 or, for larger systems, G99. Our guide to the G99 application covers it, the Merseyside and the Wirral page sets out the networks town by town, and the UK-wide rules are in our guide to whether solar panels need planning permission.
A car charger has planning rules of its own, which change in England on 21 October 2026: EV charging in Sefton sets them out with the council’s plug-in car and public charger figures.
If your house is listed, in a conservation area, or has a flat roof, tell us on the first call. It changes the design and sometimes the order things happen in, but rarely whether solar works.