Pre planning assessment - help.

[cjard]

New page, new start

I have no knowledge of this at all and would love to know who would i contact to assess possibilities for that land? I cant get my head around the local planning portal. I would like to pay someone at the council to tell me what they think or suggest preferences...but i didnt see any options for that.

You won't find that in portal. Portal is only for applications. Councils approach advice differently. Some charge some don't. Ask your local council how to get advice. I wrote a 6 page letter and waited 3 months for a response. It gave me some usefull ammo but mainly it helped work out what the planning officer deciding was keen on and what she didn't like. She was on maternity for the actual application so in one sense it didn't help a bit but I could at least tick the box saying I had had advice and demonstrate that I'd heeded some of it. It seems to irk planners when they take time out of their lives to be so helpful to you and then have all that carefully worded nonbinding wisdom ignored

It will really help if you know what you want to do, planners will (and should) refuse to give advice on what they will pass so they aren't going to do your design work (that comes at a later stage, when they're nitpicking over the design work you've paid for and don't like your tiles, windows, doors or wall covering. Or room layouts. You get the idea).

You don't need plans unless you make an application. You don't need very detailed plans if you go for outline consent

 

[Suited72]

I think they will reject a house on that plot. The architect I contacted said chances were slim but to ask the council what objections they may have.
The house already there is running as an unlicensed HMO. If I could get an annex at the bottom with 1 car placement that would suit what people seem to want in this area.
Thanks all anyway. You're advice allowed me to contact the relevant people feeling more confident that I was on the right track. The local authority have a bad habit of taking the negative view of a development. They didn't even seem to like the fact that this was being room rented, even though it was unlicensed they kept visiting me during works insisting I should try to comply with a licensed HMO regulations (which I did) so hopefully I have a good standing with them on that basis.

 

[geraldthehamster]

I think you probably need to talk to a planning consultant, with knowledge of the kind of development that the local authority has permitted in that area.

In a similar area of terraced housing in York, a friend was able to build an apartment at the bottom of a fairly small back yard, and a developer was permitted to build a small apartment block at the end of the same terrace. However, both replaced existing structures (a coach house, and a workshop).

Cheers
Richard