Plum Tree Cottage, Shaftesbury Road, Barford St Martin, Salisbury, SP3 4BL Data via plota.co.uk

Natural England advice: extra wastewater in these catchments harms protected habitats, so schemes must offset their nutrient load, usually through credits.

Previously an area of outstanding natural beauty, which is still the designation in law. Since 2023 authorities must seek to further its purpose, not merely have regard to it.

The council must give weight to preserving or enhancing the area's character and appearance. Not every council has published its boundaries as open data.

The Environment Agency flood map for planning. Councils use it to decide when a flood risk assessment and the sequential test are needed. It is indicative and does not show whether a particular property will flood.

Where development of farmland is needed, policy prefers poorer land over the best and most versatile (grades 1, 2 and 3a). Three sources: Natural England's post-1988 field surveys, which are definitive where they exist; the Defra predictive map for England (2025) and the Welsh Government predictive map, modelled from the soil map with 3a and 3b split; and the 1970s provisional map, which planners and other services still show, coarser and with grade 3 undivided. Where the provisional and predicted grades disagree, treat the predicted grade as the current estimate and expect an application to carry its own survey.

Harm to a protected site is only accepted where there is no alternative and an overriding public interest.

Nationally important archaeology protected by the Secretary of State. Work that affects the monument or its setting is rarely permitted.

Sites of special scientific interest are the best wildlife and geological sites in the country. Development likely to harm one is rarely permitted.

The site itself is not listed. Listed building consent is needed for work that affects the special interest of a listed building, inside or out, on top of planning permission. Setting can be a consideration for buildings nearby; there is no fixed radius.