Applications, appeals, permitted development, enforcement and planning strategy across England
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Class A: gates, fences, walls and other enclosures
Class A of GPDO Part 2 permits the erection, construction, maintenance, improvement or alteration of gates, fences, walls and other means of enclosure in England, subject to height limits and listed building restrictions. The familiar 1 metre and 2 metre limits depend on the relationship with a highway, not simply whether the boundary is at the front or rear of a property.
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How high can a new fence, gate or wall be?
| Location of a new enclosure | Class A height limit |
|---|---|
| Adjacent to a highway used by vehicular traffic | 1 metre above ground level |
| Elsewhere | 2 metres above ground level |
| At a school, adjacent to a highway used by vehicular traffic | 2 metres, provided the parts above 1 metre do not obstruct highway users’ views so as to be likely to cause danger |
These are limits on the whole enclosure. Include the gravel board, trellis, coping and relevant posts, rather than measuring only the fence panel. A nominal 6 foot panel is about 1.83 metres high; adding a substantial gravel board can take the finished fence above 2 metres.
The school exception is not a general entitlement for every nursery or childcare business. Class A.2 expressly includes the specified premises converted under Classes S or T of Part 3 and temporary schools under Class C of Part 4, subject to the statutory wording.
What does adjacent to a highway mean?
There is no universal distance at which a fence automatically stops being adjacent. Its position, the intervening land and the relationship with the highway must be considered together. Moving a fence back by 1 metre or 2 metres is not an automatic route to a 2 metre fence.
A pavement or verge can be part of the highway. Measuring only from the carriageway edge can therefore give a misleading answer. Vehicular traffic is not limited to motor cars: bicycles are vehicles too. Establish the highway’s status and actual relationship with the enclosure, including where the route is a cycle route.
A publicly maintainable road is not the only possible highway. A privately owned route can carry public highway rights, while a private driveway is not necessarily a highway. Ask the highway authority where the boundary or status is uncertain. A side or rear fence next to a road may face the same 1 metre limit as a front boundary.
A public footpath can also be a highway used by vehicular traffic where vehicles lawfully use it under private access rights. In Chelmsford appeal APP/W1525/X/24/3350843, decided on 2nd October 2026, Inspector M Savage considered fencing beside The Chase, a privately owned public footpath also used by vehicles, with private vehicular rights benefiting properties along it.
The Inspector found that the wording did not require a public right to drive along the route. The Chase was a highway and was used by vehicular traffic, so the 1 metre limit applied. Private ownership did not change that conclusion.
We should not read this as saying that every public footpath triggers the 1 metre rule. The route’s legal status, vehicular use and relationship with the proposed fence, wall or gates still matter. Equally, do not assume that calling a route a private track or public footpath automatically allows a 2 metre enclosure. The extended definition of highway in GPDO Part 1 should not simply be imported into Part 2.
Connected enclosure works may also be assessed as a single operation. In the same appeal, approximately 1 metre and 1.5 metre panels were physically connected, with a roughly 1.5 metre post connected to the lower panel. The Inspector assessed the proposed fencing as a whole: because it exceeded the applicable limit, the whole operation failed to benefit from Class A and the proposed-development certificate appeal was dismissed.
A compliant panel does not necessarily save connected works which breach the limit. That does not mean every long boundary fence must have one height; the actual operation and which parts are adjacent to the highway require assessment.
Measuring height on sloping or raised ground
Class A does not contain a bespoke definition of ground level. The GPDO’s general definition of a building excludes a gate, fence, wall or other means of enclosure for Part 2, so the rule about measuring a building from its highest adjacent ground should not simply be transferred to a fence.
Show the ground levels on both sides, the highway level where relevant and the height along the full length of the proposal. Do not assume that raising the garden or measuring from a bank entitles you to a taller roadside fence. A stepped fence needs checking at each relevant section, including the tops of its posts.
The drawing below illustrates the ordinary new-enclosure limits on level ground. It does not resolve a sloping-site or highway-boundary dispute.
Repair, alteration and replacement
For an enclosure being maintained, improved or altered, Class A.1(c) allows the greater of its former height and the height which would be permitted for a new enclosure in that position. This can allow work to an existing taller enclosure without reducing it to the normal new-build limit.
There is an important distinction between genuinely maintaining or altering an enclosure and erecting a new one. Substantial demolition and replacement may be treated as new construction even if the replacement occupies the same line. Keeping a few old elements, or splitting replacement into phases, does not automatically preserve the former-height allowance. Record the existing structure and the exact scope of work before starting. Class A does not retrospectively legitimise an unlawful original fence.
Cutting an unauthorised fence down later does not make its original erection permitted development. Inspector M Savage made this clear at paragraph 3 of the Chelmsford decision above, but expressly assessed the application as a proposal for new fencing rather than deciding the status of the existing fence.
Whether later alteration works themselves benefit from Class A is a separate question from whether the original operation was lawful. A fence now meeting the dimensional limits is not, for that reason alone, proof that the enclosure is lawful overall. Check the original works, the precise alteration, all relevant restrictions and any enforcement notice. Where needed, seek formal confirmation through the appropriate lawful development certificate.
A useful appeal example: Arundell Road
In appeal APP/D0121/C/20/3246774, decided on 7th October 2020, the Inspector considered a replacement fence at Arundell Road, Weston-super-Mare. Replacement in two stages was still treated as the erection of a new fence rather than merely maintenance or improvement. The decision also illustrates the importance of the adjoining highway level when assessing the fence’s height.
Read the locally hosted appeal decision, particularly paragraphs 5 to 8 and 26. This is a fact-specific appeal decision, not a binding court judgment or a universal measurement formula. Our guide to planning measurements explains the wider issue.
Listed buildings, demolition and retaining walls
Class A does not permit development within the curtilage of a listed building, or work to an enclosure surrounding a listed building. This is wider than asking whether the fence itself is listed. Listed building consent may also be needed in its own right.
Conservation area designation alone is not a blanket ban on Class A, but an Article 4 direction or planning condition may restrict it. Demolishing a wall, gate or fence can raise a separate planning question, including relevant demolition in a conservation area. Check that before removing the existing boundary.
A retaining wall or an engineering operation is not automatically a means of enclosure permitted by Class A. Ground raising, excavation, retaining structures and the fence above them must be assessed as the actual development proposed. Structural stability and any Party Wall etc. Act requirements are separate matters for appropriate specialists.
Hedges, painting and highway safety
A living hedge is not subject to the same general height limits as a constructed fence. Replacing a tall hedge with a fence does not give the new fence a right to the hedge’s former height. See our hedges guide for the separate rules.
Class C covers exterior painting, subject to its own exceptions. Creating a new vehicle access is a different operation from erecting its gates. Gates must also avoid creating a highway obstruction, and an existing planning condition may require visibility splays to be kept clear.
Checks before work starts
Permitted development is a grant of planning permission subject to the legislation. Check the planning history, any condition restricting the right and any applicable Article 4 direction. The existing use and development must be lawful where the GPDO requires this. A conservation area designation does not by itself remove every Part 2 right.
These rights apply in England. They do not override ownership, lease restrictions, restrictive covenants, listed building consent, highway consent or other separate controls. Where the planning position needs formal confirmation, a lawful development certificate can establish whether a clearly specified proposal is lawful. An informal opinion is not the same as a certificate.
Class A legislation
Source: GPDO 2015, Schedule 2, Part 2. The operative wording below omits editorial amendment annotations. Read it with the GPDO general provisions.
Class A – gates, fences, walls etc
Permitted development
A. The erection, construction, maintenance, improvement or alteration of a gate, fence, wall or other means of enclosure.
Development not permitted
A.1 Development is not permitted by Class A if—
(a) the height of any gate, fence, wall or means of enclosure erected or constructed adjacent to a highway used by vehicular traffic would, after the carrying out of the development, exceed—
(i) for a school, 2 metres above ground level, provided that any part of the gate, fence, wall or means of enclosure which is more than 1 metre above ground level does not create an obstruction to the view of persons using the highway as to be likely to cause danger to such persons;
(ii) in any other case, 1 metre above ground level;
(b) the height of any other gate, fence, wall or means of enclosure erected or constructed would exceed 2 metres above ground level;
(c) the height of any gate, fence, wall or other means of enclosure maintained, improved or altered would, as a result of the development, exceed its former height or the height referred to in paragraph (a) or (b) as the height appropriate to it if erected or constructed, whichever is the greater; or
(d) it would involve development within the curtilage of, or to a gate, fence, wall or other means of enclosure surrounding, a listed building.
Interpretation of Class A
A.2 For the purposes of Class A, “school” includes—
(a) premises which have changed use under Class S or T of Part 3 of this Schedule (changes of use) to become a state-funded school or registered nursery as defined in paragraph X of Part 3; and
(b) a building permitted by Class C of Part 4 of this Schedule (temporary buildings and uses) to be used temporarily as a school, from the date the local planning authority is notified as provided in paragraph C.2(b) of Part 4.
Explore GPDO Part 2
Part 2 overview: minor operations
- Class A: gates, fences and wallsNew enclosures, height limits and changes to existing boundaries
- Class B: access to a highwayAccess required for qualifying permitted development on an unclassified road
- Class C: exterior paintingColour changes, advertising exceptions and heritage controls
- Class D: wall mounted charging outletsElectric vehicle outlets in lawful off-street parking
- Class E: charging upstands and equipmentFreestanding chargers and qualifying non-domestic equipment housing
- Class F: security CCTVBuilding-mounted cameras with size, height and spacing limits
- Class G: moveable pub and restaurant structuresOne qualifying structure, subject to footprint, height and location limits
Back to Part 1: development within the curtilage of a dwellinghouse
Updated: 2nd October 2026