Deck and retaining walls planning permission

[james2006]

Hi - my garden has a steep slope in it. So I have recently conducted the following work:

Deck: I have put a deck up in my garden and then subsequently found out it may need planning permision (as over 30cm heigh). The garden is on a steep slope. The deck is 4m x 4m and drops from 40cm at on end to around 1.3m at the other. Before building the deck there was a pre-existing patform in place at a higher level than the deck. This was constructed using retaining sleeper filled in with rubble, concrete and soil - I dug this down to construct the deck. The neighbours are happy with the deck, hence no issue from the townhall. The deck it solid as a rock with post dug down to depths of 60-90cm and at least 100kg of concrete on each post.

Retain walls: Under the deck, I have constructed there parellel retaing walls. These are 1m to 1.4. high and constructed with double brick (english garden bond) and the concrete base reinforece with mesh and then all three walls locked together with mesh through the bases. My uncle is a qualifed brick layer - so he did all the design and work on the walls.

The issues I face is that, I am no working on putting an ensuite shower room into my garage. I was aware this needed to comply with building regs - so have submitted plans etc for this. My problem is what if the building control officer starts asking questions about the walls and deck.

Does anyone know:
1) Did I need planning permission for the walls/deck?
2) Is it likely the buidind control officer will start asking about other works to the house?

Appreciate some help.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

I assume the area of the deck is largere than the platform it replaced. You would need Planning Permission for the deck as it is over 300mm higher than existing ground level however Planning and Building Control do not (generlly) talk to each other and I would (almost) put money on it that he would not say anyting about it if he even realised it required PP.

Building Regs is not as straight forward, I believe the technical answer is that anything that is required to enable access to the entry points of the house needs to be to Building Regs. So if you require a raised deck or platform of some description in order to use the back door it should comply.

However its unlikey he will care about the Regs for it as mentioned the answer given above is the 'by the book' answer and generally these types of decks etc are built all the time and are seldom approved by building Control.

 

[james2006]

Thanks for the note.

What is your view on the retaining walls? Permission required?

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

They form the base for the deck presumably? So they would be considerd as part of the deck hence PP would be required for them as they are the suppotrt for the deck.

Or have i miss understood, your post is not entirely clear.

 

[james2006]

They sit under the deck. but are quite far in front. The walls are really a stand alone feature and the deck would be ok with out the walls as the front osts are down 90cm.