Limestone Pavement Order
Rare fissured rock protected from removal
A Limestone Pavement Order protects an area of naturally fissured limestone that lies exposed at the surface. It designates the land and prohibits removing or disturbing the limestone on or in it. Natural England or Natural Resources Wales notifies the pavement; the local planning authority or ministers then make the order. Orders exist only in England and Wales, on upland limestone in the Yorkshire Dales, Cumbria, Lancashire and north Wales.
What This Means
Inside your four walls, the order asks nothing of you. It does not touch the house or any structure already standing; it catches the rock. Digging up, breaking or moving the protected limestone is an offence, loose pieces included. In practice the excuse the law recognises is planning permission for the works. So landscaping, a driveway, hard standing or an extension that would disturb the pavement needs consent first. Where the order covers an outlying field rather than the garden, none of this reaches your plans. This does not normally affect mortgage approval, buildings insurance or resale.
Practical Advice
- Ask your conveyancer's local authority search to confirm whether the order covers the garden and building footprint or only outlying land.
- Take any driveway, patio, outbuilding or extension that breaks ground near exposed rock to the local planning authority before you design it.
- Budget for a geological or ecological survey on any scheme that would break ground near the pavement.
- Allow longer than the usual eight weeks for a decision where a Site of Special Scientific Interest or National Park also covers the land.
- Ask the seller for a copy of the order and any consents already granted.
Additional Information
Scotland dropped the regime in November 2004, when the Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004 repealed the power. Scottish limestone pavement is protected instead through Sites of Special Scientific Interest and nature conservation orders. Northern Ireland never had the power at all.