Planning nightmare suggestions please????

[goooba769]

Right then a bit of advice needed. Iv got a detached house and I’m looking to extend 2m towards the boundary on the side of the house which from research should not be a problem. Now the council 99% of the time require the front of the extension to be set back from the face of the house. Now I can see where they are coming from to try and blend the new and the old in but this house is only 1980ish so relatively new. Now I want to move the door across (currently on front of house) the face to the front of the new extension and I want to put a larger window to go half in new extension and half in old extension (Upstairs in the small bedroom which would become big!) but it becomes a bit tricky if I need to set the extension back!
Now I have thought of suggesting I will remove the old brick work from the side of the house clean the old cement off and reuse these on the front of the property and was also going to suggest removing old tiles from back of house and using them on the front. This would soften the impact on the front of the house.
Now can anyone suggest ways I could persuade the council to let this extension go from the front of the house?

 

[Bowness72]

Your best bet might be to talk to arrange to meet a planning officer at your house before submitting any plans. I think its called a pre-planning consultation or something. I also think the reason they want the front of the extension setting back is so that it looks like an extension rather than the original building.

 

[ColJack]

it's so that the street full of semi's don't end up looking like a row of terraced houses, just one frontage..

it depends on what the adjacent houses are like or how close to the boundary you are building etc..

 

[goooba769]

Jack, there is no house directly next to me, on the one side I intend to build is a road into a cul-de-sack(spoke to highway age and they cant see any problems viewing) and on the other is two garages one mine and one my neighbours which is at the end of their garden. There is a random selection of larger and smaller houses around me with 1 bed terrace opposite so as you can see there is no set size house. The designers must have been bored when they designed this estate

 

[^woody^]

Why have you started a new thread about this - you asked this question a few days ago, and got the answers in that thread

 

[goooba769]

I could not find it before so posyed it again as I had not seen the replys

 

[jeds]

Ask your local planning department for a copy of its supplementary planning document (SPD) on domestic extensions. Or if you google you will probably be able to find it online. Generally its planning officers will follow that guidance.

Having said that, it's not always a foregone conclusion that you must set extensions back from the main house. I have recently secured planning for a two storey side extension which projects 1m from the front of the house - so it can be done.

 

[jono_h]

I drew my plans up so that the extension would be flush with the front of the house (thinking that Planning may ask me to push it back) and they approved it with no quibbling.

However this was on a detached house - our neighbours in a semi did have to step there's back. It is all about retaining the 'balance' of the street.
I did have one suggestion, purely as a laugh, that you could design the extension set back by a brick, but build it flush and say you'd lost it in the tolerance.....

 

[goooba769]

Well thought I'd give an update and as expected the planning officer is not happy with the extension going to the front and wants it set back at least 1m!
My architect has gone in and spoken and they did compromise by letting us keep the bottom to the front(basically said we would call it a porch which you dont need planning for if she sticks her heels in) and set the top back.
Iv had all the plans back and it looks crap. Its totally destroyed the look of my house.
I decided to ring the officer and the only reason she could come up with was she thought it was too imposing(where the F**k is that in the so called guide line booklet they gave me)!!!! Well, I just could not believe what she said when my house is a detached on a corner and there is no building within about 15m of me and its only a 2m extension on the side! I'm also surrounded by terrace's and larger houses than mine I just cant work out where the hell this woman is coming from.
Just spoke to my architect and he suggests getting these plans approved and then going back to her and her boss and try and come to a better arrangement. He suggested getting these plans through in case they get their noses out and reject my revised plans.
Iv even looked through the last 2 years of planning applications looking for simular extensions and 90% of them are to the front of the building! One in particular had done exactly what we are doing and they couldn't even get the bricks close to matching the original and it looks terrible.
I just cant believe how stupid they are being and I can see me appealing and having to wait 6 months to resolve it!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Nige F]

I can believe it....and it`s as bad here in W***den....you have my sympathy

 

[goooba769]

Here’s another update and things are looking slightly better!
I’ve now roped my local committee member in to look at my plans and after explaining what has happened so far he has agreed to put it forward to the planning committee.
Will let you know how it pans out.