AshandOak

The response from the pre app was that in our area 3m is the minimum width of access permitted.

That's one of the questions we're asking the pre application planning officer.

Appreciate your considered response Ferdinand. I would love to build a second there as our retirement property and sell the (hopefully mortgage free) main house at a later date. The council has form for approving backland developments of single houses (1 in our village last year and one 7 years ago - none refused those are the only ones applied for) and also small backland developments elsewhere in the borough. We're currently waiting for pre application advice based on a 2.7m access but asking the question would it need to be wider e.g 3.2m? If we won the lottery we would knock the bungalow down but there are always compromises with a self build and that would need to be ours. I'm erring more to take off 0.5m of the bungalow because of 'normal' access like supermarket deliveries and washing machine/furniture deliveries etc.

I'm only building one new house for my family. I'm not building to develop because the site certainly has potential but that's not my intent. The bungalow will either be lived in by an elderly relative or sold to pay for the new house because the build cost may exceed predictions.

It's a single storey (bungalow) so no height restrictions and just a straightforward straight wall. It would be removing the hallway so straight into living room. Knocking through the kitchen into the living room because otherwise the kitchen would be one unit wide plue a metre. Bathroom would have 0.5m off but it has a water tank cupboard currently which could go as the kitchen boiler is ancient and could be replaced with a combi boiler. Then taking 0.5m off the second bedroom the full length. The garden is huge so could extend both rear bedrooms by a metre if it was economically worth it.

Completely removing the garage and walls leaves 2.7m. I'm considering taking half a metre off the side of the existing house. Is that a ridiculous idea or feasible for c£10k?

Planning have said no to extending but yes to a second house. It's thinking about where it goes which is the tricky bit!

The bungalow will stay as is. If absolutely necessary for access (2.7m at the moment and the need for sprinkler system) we could shave 0.5m off it and it would still be a 2 bed bungalow albeit with a smaller 2nd bedroom, bathroom and the kitchen would need to be in the living room. But the costs might not outweigh the benefits. My mother in law will be living there. It's only 2.7m for a 2m stretch due to the staggering of the garages.

Yes it is a semidetached bungalow.

We will be using an architect but want to get some orientation ideas before we start. There's recent precedent in the village for infill garden sites and it's a designated growth village. Planning are on board in a pre application theoretical sense but obviously want to see drawings before they commit. The village has development sites for the next 15 years already agreed (far west - 400+m- behind the trees will be developed in next 2 years). Existing bungalow is a no go from a viability perspective. Already run that by planning!

Bonus points for diagrams! This is the plot we're buying. The red outline is owned by the property we're buying. The yellow outline is designated garden land. The rest is agricultural after an unsuccessful attempt 5 years ago to designate as garden land (not proven rather than refused per se) The purple line is the edge of the village envelope. The blue line is a strip still in the ownership of the original farmer (cannot build on or past it). Only 2 trees to the extreme north and furthest point west. For scaling purposes the size of house we want to build is pretty much the size of the 'sticky out' garden bit NOT owned by the property we're buying. So from the red line to the edge of the grey blob all that rectangle is about the size of the house we're planning. The views are to the north and west. There's some scrubland thin trees to the east (above the neighbour's garden past the purple line). The property and its neighbours are all single storey bungalows. Scaling/practicality wise it is 0.5 acres of completely flat land. Where would you put the house and how would you orientate it? Thank you in advance for your help.

There's certainly room for it and if I wanted it to make me money I might. But I really want to live in the area and have a bespoke home for my kids to grow up in.

They're saying they need to redo it but it's not even been live for 3 years so pretty pathetic for a 20 year strategy. My area has doubled in housing numbers in 3 years.

Yes. It took a long time but there's actually an over supply if anything.

Through the forum I'm aware of the fire engine 45m rule and that's something to bear in mind on the plot. The garage would be removed entirely but measuring it today the width is 2.4m. So that gives only a few cm more in terms of drive through space. It would be for us to live in and we don't have any interest in caravans so that's one issue put to bed! I have very detailed knowledge of local politics, our Local Plan and the ridiculous numbers of square box houses springing up all over our area. There's no 'local need' because of all the overpriced boxes. But there has not been a single self build plot in over 5000 house permissions granted. Sprinkler system is something to bear in mind depending on how far into the plot we can build. Oh and there's only 1 ash and 1 oak (rather than ashes and oakes) and they have TPOs on them. They are at the two furthest corners of the plot so are no bother within the plans. Interesting idea about outline with local and full with my preferred.

Thanks for the replies! Planning permission in our area takes absolutely the maximum time allowed by legislation so I want to make sure I'm not wasting my time due to an obvious problem. What are the pros and cons of local architects vs further away but bespoke self build architects? I've found one about 80 miles away in a neighbouring county who has extensive experience with self builds but you raise a good point about local knowledge.

Hello! I've joined the forum because I've seen the excellent advice on past issues related to narrow access for fire engines and wanted to see what people's thoughts were on knocking through a 2.4m garage to access a half acre flat plot. I'm a bit of a self build geek and love to hear all the successful challenges people have overcome with photos and floorplans of the results. A self build is my dream and no plot is perfect so I just need to understand what my options are on an otherwise landlocked plot.