Read on Manchester City Council's own pages on 26 October 2026, and the three conservation area cards on 28 October. Rules and fees change, so check the page before you rely on one.
Tree work: six weeks' notice in a conservation area
Anyone wishing to fell, prune or uproot trees in a conservation area must give the council six weeks' notice, unless the tree is a hazard to public safety or is already covered by a Tree Preservation Order. A tree with a TPO needs the council's consent before it is pruned or felled. To find out whether a tree is protected, the council asks you to email planning@manchester.gov.uk with the address and the tree's details.
Source: Tree Preservation Orders and Trees in Conservation Areas
Scaffolding: a licence, a wait and a city-centre embargo
Scaffolding that projects onto or over the highway needs a licence, and you do not have permission to work on the highway until you have it. The council says it will contact you within 20 working days, and asks for evidence of public liability insurance of not less than £10 million, a scale plan, and photographs before, during and after. Inside the city centre perimeter there is an embargo on erecting scaffolding, with the dates given when you apply.
Source: Scaffolding permit
Skips: the operator applies, and the city centre is wait and load
It is the skip operator, not the householder, who applies for the permit, and a permit is valid for a maximum of 7 days. A skip in a restricted location needs the council's approval first, with 10 days' notice, and in the city centre only wait-and-load skips are approved. No permit is needed if the skip goes on a driveway, private land or a garden.
Source: Skip permit
Didsbury St James: a large conservation area, designated in 1970
Didsbury St James conservation area was designated in November 1970 and is centred on the historic core of Didsbury, where Wilmslow Road meets Stenner Lane. The council describes it as covering an extensive area, bounded by Ford Lane, Didsbury Park and Sandhurst Road to the north, and the River Mersey to the west. Its guidance for new work asks that garden walls, hedges, gate posts, porches, the styles and colours of window frames and roofing materials are taken into account and new buildings designed to harmonise with them. Whether windows or doors fall under an Article 4 direction here is on a page we have not read, so check with the council before you promise a client a like-for-like change.
Source: Didsbury St James Conservation Area
Chorlton Green: a small conservation area, one of the first two in Manchester
The Chorlton Green conservation area, about three miles south west of the city centre, is centred on the Green itself, the last remaining vestige of the original village. The council says the boundary is tightly drawn round the backs of the properties fronting the Green, and includes the disused St Clements churchyard and the Bowling Green hotel on Brookburn Road. It was one of the first two conservation areas designated in Manchester, in July 1970. If your customer's house backs onto the Green, ask the council whether it is inside the line before you plan tree or exterior work.
Source: Chorlton Green Conservation Area
Withington: a shopping-street conservation area with a 2024 appraisal
The Withington conservation area, about three miles south of the city centre, is mainly a linear shopping centre with some nearby housing, where Wilmslow Road, Palatine Road, Burton Road and Parsonage Road meet. The council designated it in July 1983, and the boundary follows property boundaries rather than streets. A character appraisal and a regeneration plan, part funded by Historic England, were finalised in July 2024. For a shopfitter, signwriter or builder working on a Withington frontage, those two documents are the council's own account of what it wants protected.
Source: Withington Conservation Area