Chailey Rural District Council: building control plans for the Newhaven Rural District...

Under the Public Health Act 1875 local sanitary authorities were empowered to make bylaws governing the construction of new streets and buildings and these, once approved, laid down that an application to build, accompanied by a plan, was to be submitted to the local authority before each new building in its area was constructed. The emphasis of the new buildings bylaws was generally upon the construction and drainage of the proposed structures; planning considerations as we know them were not introduced into the process of approving building plans until the Town and Country Planning Act 1947, which generally gave rise to a new series of building plans. The plans listed were submitted before the implementation of the 1947 Act to the former district and borough councils which together now constitute Lewes District.