Material Start/Certificate of Lawfulness

[John hadley]

Any advice on this would be much appreciated.
I have planning permission to convert a my home (a former guest house/hotel on 4 floors) into 4 flats. The planning runs out at the end of February but I will not have the necessary finances in place until approximately Oct/Nov so I would like to make a Material Start and apply for a Certificate of Lawfulness. All conditions related to the approved planning permission have now been discharged.
To make a material start I have carried out the demolition of an extension which was used to be the commercial kitchen for the guest house and is where the new staircase will be, which will serve the 4 flats. It was quite a substantial extension which ran from inside the original building (about one third inside and two thirds outside) so when it was demolished a wall obviously had to be built where the original wall was.
This demolition had its own planning application and was entitled 'Demolition works in connection with change of use from redundant hotel to 4 residential flats: Installation of staircase'.
I was quite confident that this would be considered a material start but I have now been informed by Planning that demolition would only constitute start if the demolition works exceeded 50 cubic metres, which it does not.
My question is has anyone heard of this 50 cubic metres minimum requirement? Personally, in all the time I've spent looking into these matters I have never come across it.
I have read about a very similar problem on a thread on this site from 2011 referring to whether the demolition of a garage constituted a material start, with some very informative comments from 'Woody' but I didn't see anything about any demolition having to exceed 50 cubic metres.
As I say, any advice on this would be much appreciated.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Is the demolition covered by the planning application to convert the house to flats or is it a separate demolition application? I’ve not heard of the 50m3 thing, ask them where this is written in the legislation:

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1990/8/section/56

 

[Nakajo]

Their point I suppose is that 50m³ can be demolished under PD - https://www.gov.uk/guidance/when-is-permission-required

 

[^woody^]

If there are two separate planning permissions - one for the demolition and one for the conversion, then carrying out the demolition, or any part or whole of that permission, does not enact the permission for the conversion.

I would disagree with the requirement for 50m3 demoltion to count as a material start. The requirements for what is a material start are not defined, and are based on fact and degree. It will come down to how significant (and permanent) the work is, that defines it as material or not, not a random m3 figure. By the planners logic, if the whole building was 49m3 and you completely removed it, then it would not be material and not be a start!

 

[John hadley]

...

 

[John hadley]

Thanks for all the replies. Very much appreciated. Your view of the rather arbitrary figure of 50 cubic metres not being relevant reflect my own Woody.
I intend now to apply for a Certificate of Lawfulness via the Planning Portal based on the demolition.
I'm not entirely sure whether I should have notified the local planning that the demolition has already been completed (which it has) despite having permission for it and so am in a bit of a quandary whether to fill the form in the past tense (demolition completed) or in a way that implies I'm waiting for a decision until demolition will take place.
Any thoughts? I don't really want to waste the not inconsiderable fee being charged.

 

[Nakajo]

I don't understand what that would achieve.

 

[^woody^]

Me neither.

I'm not sure what could be applied for on an LDC either? Apply to say the building is gone?

Demolition should be notified to the building control team, giving six weeks notice. They then will issue a s81 Demolition Notice, which with contain some requirements.