Planning permission in AONB\ conservation area

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hayleyandtom

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Hello,

we are having quite a battle with our local council over planning permission to build over the garage at the side of the house. Our house is part of a pair of semi detached houses in an AONB\conservation area. Ther other side of our house is a restaurant car park and the street itself is a real mix of houses dating from 1500's to some recently built less than 10 years ago so not sure why street scene is so impacted? I've uploaded old pics of our house from googlemaps to show the street scene :)

I have uploaded the existing and proposed plans for the application. The letter they sent contains the statements:


" a pitched roof which reflected the roof shape of the main property would be preferable.
There may be some scope for a two storey side extension in this location. proposals for extensions to residential dwellings are assessed against policies EN1 and H6B of the Sevenoaks District Local Plan and guidance in the supplementary planning document at the following link, http://www.sevenoaks.gov.uk/__data/...sidential-Extensions-SPD-adopted-May-2009.pdf


"Any extension should appear subservient to the main dwelling and not have a detrimental impact on its character or the wider street scene, including the symmetry of the pair of semi-detached properties.Therefore we would be looking for the proposal to be set below the existing ridge height of the property and behind the existing front building line of the dwelling.

The site is also within a Conservation Area and Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and therefore policy EN23 of the Sevenoaks District Council applies as does the test in Section 85 of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000. Therefore any scheme should be well designed and seek to preserve or enhance the character of the Conservation Area, and have regard to conserving and enhancing the natural beauty of the area."

I wondered if anyone had any ideas of how best to approach this? I'm 8 months pregnant and desperately want to get this damn planning permission out the way!

Thanks in advance!

Hayley
 
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I assume pre-application advice was not sought prior to the submission of the formal application because the feedback you have from the Council would have stated this then and you could have made the necessary amendments.

Anyway, why don't you amend the drawings to suit the Council's policies, guidance documents and statements? It's not uncommon for the Council to ask for extensions to be set back and lower than the existing dwelling.

From a construction point of view, it may have been more feasible to erect a two storey side extension following demolition of the existing garage as you would more than likely have to underpin the existing garage foundations (assuming there are any) and also insert any steelwork to take the structure above.
 
Hi DOHdesigns,

The reply is from pre application advice, we ahvent submitted any formal planning application yet due to the strict regulations in our area.

We have already built in steels to support a second floor (structural engineer calculated them when we had a single storey extension(kitchen) built on the back of the house attached onto the garage so we took the roof of the garage put the new steels in and put a new temp roof over until we can get suitable drawings that we feel the council will approve so far they havent liked anything we have offered!) Finsing it very diffcult as no planning experience. I think the main issue is they are saying we will unbalance the pair of semi's so if they want them to stay balanced then surely they are saying the only option we have is to build at the back of the house instead so the front appearance isnt altered? The letter seems to state though that if we set it back that might be ok but i dont see how that can be as it would unbalance the look from the street plus it doesnt give us any idea of how far set back they would want it.


any help gratefully recieved!


many thanks in advance
 
If the proposed extension is set lower and back than the original dwelling, it would still retain the semi-detached look as lining everything through would make it a terrace, which I assume the surrounding areas are not? This is what they're getting at. And it seems if you followed this approach, the proposals are likely to be favoured. Set backs are normally stipulated in Planning guidance documents, but they normally ask for about 900mm. The ground floor element could line flush with the front of the house and the side could be built up to the boundary, but it's the first floor element that would normally have to step back... from the front and side.
 
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I see, so something like the new image Ive attached you think would be welcomed more by the council? As you can see it's stepped back by 200mm. Can you see any reason why they wouldnt favour this? Can't thank you enough for your help, planning is a mindfield!
 
Hi,

I can see what they mean about your initial drawings...they will not like it because of the inbalance, especially what you have done in moving the window, you need to make the extension look like an extension.

The revisions are much better. I would remove the step at the back as it probably isnt needed. It may however be a good idea to increase the step at the front. Some coucils want a whole metre. When we did ours we managed to get away with 450mm.

You may be able to get away with only stepping back at first floor as well given that the garage already exists, although this will mean big steels at the front of the garage to hold the wall and roof above up! (edit, just seen you have done that already)

HTH
 
thanks Eddieed thats very helpful, I'll try to enquire what kind of step back they would require.


ban-all-sheds - plans/photos are availabel to view in my photoalbum on here (named "house")

:)
 
And the reason you couldn't be bothered to finish the job of loading photos into an album by putting them in your post was what, exactly?
 
I wouldn’t waste any more time faffing about with Pre-Planning. Anything they say over the phone or in Pre-Planning will just have a disclaimer attached stating this advice does not mean a thing anyway. The forum is littered with such experiences. Just whack in an application and then get a rapport going with the officer and hopefully an amicable solution will be achieved.
 
ban-all-sheds - When looking on the help section of this forum it states not to add photos to individual posts you should create an album instead, ulpoad the photos and reference them. I'm not sure why you have decided to direct your anger at me, Im a new user trying to follow the rules. Are you on here just to upset people as you have offered no useful advice? I'm 8 months pregnant and dont appreciate people's unneccasry anger especially on a forum where so many others have been/are being so helpful. It seems you are misplaced on this website.

freddymercurystwin- many thanks for your input unfortunately the assigned planner at our local council is anything but helpful as we found out from our last application for a single storey extension (we wasted time and money with pre planning meetings with her only for our application to get rejected) so very frustrating. The comments however onthis forum have been extremely helpful and hopefully with submission of the altered plans inc. the step back will be more favourable.


Thanks again for everyones valuable comments much appreciated.
 
 
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