We were asked to carry out an initial design of a solar panel installation at the church, and then took that design to Brighton & Hove City Council for pre-planning advice.

The Council’s Planning and Heritage departments provided feedback on our design, with the Heritage team expressing reservations about installing solar panels on the historic Grade II-listed building. The origins of St. Andrew’s Church date back as far as the 13^th century, and the initial design had the solar panels fixed to the roof above the oldest part of the church.

However, the Council were in favour of the solar installation, as it aligned with their sustainability goals. So, we took the Heritage department’s concerns on board and tweaked the design so that no actual fixings would be attached to the oldest part of the church and the system would instead be held in place by ballast.  

The project’s structural engineer confirmed the church roof could take the weight and so we proceeded with the full planning application on behalf of the Church, complete with detailed explanations of how the panels would be fixed in place and line-of-sight drawings so that the council could assess whether the panels would be visible from street level.