"Forward of the principal elevation"

  • Thread starter Captain Nemesis
  • Start date
C

Captain Nemesis

With a house with bay windows, is the line you can't go forward of that of the main wall or of the windows?
 
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It's a moot point, but probably both the main wall, and the wall of a bay window.
See page 15 (or thereabouts) of the Guidance for Householders, there's a diagram showing where you can't build beyond.
 
It's a moot point, but probably both the main wall, and the wall of a bay window.
See page 15 (or thereabouts) of the Guidance for Householders, there's a diagram showing where you can't build beyond.

I guess you mean this https://assets.publishing.service.g...e/830643/190910_Tech_Guide_for_publishing.pdf , and p15 says

upload_2021-5-3_22-56-41.jpeg


Its actually an idle Q, really - just curiosity. Our house looks like this

upload_2021-5-3_23-0-36.jpeg


and over the front door (not drawn) is a flat timber and roofing felt canopy. Nothing really wrong with it - its sound and doesnt leak, but its rather uninspiring, and weve been wondering what to do,especially given that it may come down for EWI reasons -

Replace, renovated?
Replace but with a pitched roof?
Replace with trendy glass and stainless steel?
Build a porch?

Been looking at what people in the neighbourhood have done (all of the above, with the proviso that no. 3s seem to be cheapo aluminium and polycarbonate).

The houses around and about have several designs, and some have no bay windows - the front is one plane, but on the ground floor the wall with the front door is set back, with the first floor overhanging, making an open porch, and in a moment of idle curiosity I imagined our house extended to replicate that.

Never would, even if allowed, as the cost would make the floor space gained more expensive than Hong Kong, but it did make me wonder what the rules were.
 
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Here's another moot point:

Is the "line you can't be build in front of" a straight line, projected up to the edge of the property in each direction, or can it be a curved line following the bends in the road?

Example:- we live in an isolated house on a small country lane. The house is set roughly parallel to the lane, but at a double S bend. The garden frontage is about 200 metres long, and the garden, about 2 1/2 acres, extends over both sides of the road.

If the line is literally straight then it cuts obliquely across the "back" garden in one direction and leaves a chunk, with exising outbuildings, on the other side of the road. Thus some of the "back" garden is in the front, and some of the "front" garden is at the back, all because of the bend in the road.

On the other hand, a line that followed the road at a constant distance from the front wall of the house would seem obvious and sensible, but would not be straight.
 
Interestingly, an appeal case cropped up on the Planning Jungle website this morning concerning this very issue.

An inspector determined that the line beyond which you can't build is simply a line through and parallel to the front elevation, extended to either side as far as the site boundary, regardless of the bend of the road.
 
An inspector determined that the line beyond which you can't build is simply a line through and parallel to the front elevation, extended to either side as far as the site boundary, regardless of the bend of the road.
Why would it need an inspector to determine that? It seems common sense that the line would follow the line of the wall, it actually says so in the guide, and for at least as long as I've had teeth, the concept of a building line as been clear - a line that follows the building wall.
 
I agree with Woody - it seems b*****n obvious that lines are wrt the building. From what Clifford says there could perhaps be some debate over which is the principal elevation, but other than that...
 
You'll need a planner that knows the difference between a tangent and a TPO - and lots of luck in finding one!
 
I agree with Woody - it seems b*****n obvious that lines are wrt the building. From what Clifford says there could perhaps be some debate over which is the principal elevation, but other than that...


Fair enough. But that does produce some potentially bizare results with a bendy road and a very long road frontage.
A house facing the point of a U-bend for example could have a back garden with a long road "frontage" entirely behind the straight building line as defined.
 
Fair enough. But that does produce some potentially bizare results with a bendy road and a very long road frontage.
A house facing the point of a U-bend for example could have a back garden with a long road "frontage" entirely behind the straight building line as defined.
What is the principle elevation or side elevations fronting a road are clearly defined in the guidance.
 

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