Loft extension planning advice

[Pdp16]

Morning all

Wondering if I can draw on the collective wisdom of this forum to ask for some advice.

I’ve submitted planning permission for a rear extension and a loft conversion/extension to a semi detached house I have purchased. My understanding was that planning permission was required because the house had already been extended by the previous owners - single storey rear extension and a first floor side extension over the garage.

My original planning application (pictures attached) for the roof included a full width rear dormer across the back (7.08m wide) and a hip to gable extension. Other dormers on the same road that have gone through under permitted development on similar semi detached properties have been around 6m wide. The dimensions of the loft alteration came in under 50m3 but I thought it would be best to include it as part of the planning rather than seek a lawful development certificate. But having read on here maybe that wouldn’t have been allowed anyway because of the loft and side extension joining?

The planning officer responded the other day to say the following:

The principle issue pertains to the scale of the proposed rear dormer. The dormer proposed subsumes the resultant rear roof slope and fails to appear as a subordinate addition to the host roof slope.

Whilst there are some examples of dormers in the locality these are not of comparable scale and in any event each site is assessed on its own merits.

I am offering one opportunity to address this concern by inviting revised plans amending the width of the dormer. Preferably it should also be reduced in height but if this is not possible then an even more meaningful reduction in width should be made. I cannot give exact figures however I would suggest the reduction in width needs to be at least 3m.

I’ve asked the architect to revise the plans(attached) but it seems that the the resulting dormer is now significantly smaller and not adding as much space as I would have liked.

The question I have ultimately is what are people’s thoughts on this new design and is it realistically the best I can achieve in the circumstances?

Thanks in advance

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Can you post the plans - ground & first floors from before any extensions were added, as they are now and the new proposed plans?

 

[Pdp16]

Unfortunately the original plans aren’t available on the councils website from when the first extension was done in 1995. But I’ve attached the current and proposed extension ground and first floor plans. I’ve highlighted the areas in yellow that were extended from the original house, hope that helps.

 

[stevie888]

In general planners don't like loft conversions.

As soon as you put one on a planning permission drawing they can refuse it even if it is PD. I have had a planner tell me this directly and then refuse the application when my client said chuck it in as is.

Way round it is to do a planning for the extension if you can't work it as an LRE. The thinking now is to look at the proposed addition and lump it in with any existing additions that it abuts and assess the combined structure against the cited criteria.

Then do a stand alone LDC for the loft, or just do it if you're brave enough: you don't actually have to get permission for PD though I always advocate doing so,

 

[Pdp16]

Thanks for your help.

Sorry this is all a bit new to me. What does LRE stand for?

The architect is suggesting as some of the permitted development rights would have been taken up by the side extension to proceed with the planning application with a reduced dormer and hip to gable in line with the planning officers suggested reduction.

And then later on the provision it is accepted revise the design and reapply for either planning or a lawful development certificate once we have more time to calculate it.

Does that sound achievable?

Thanks

 

[stevie888]

LRE is large rear extension the process whereby rear extensions under an LDC previously limted to 3 or 4m can go to 6 or 8 (with the consent of the neighbours).

Your architect is partly right for the` wrong reason in mentioning the existing extension. It used to be the case that PD involved the total volume but this was changed many years ago to the independant assessment of each element against the appropriate criteria, What they do do however is look at all the additions lumped together so in effect on the ground floor you have an L shaped addition so it is a side extension and cannot exceed 50% of the original width under PD rules which it does already. So the rear is definitely a Planning Permission job.

For the loft you can add 50cum to the ORIGINAL (or pre 1946) roof so you need to establish that which is easy enough as you just look around at matching properties that are unmolested. Worst case you had a hip and that has moved over: this would have added max volume.

There are several tricks to get the dormer volume down to match what volume is available but my gut feeling is to forget the hip to gable and maximise volime in the dormer,