Garage - Permitted Development

[Moonhawk]

Hi.  I'm just looking for a bit of advice.

 

We own a dormer bungalow in the Cheshire greenbelt and have been trying to secure planning permission to build a double garage at the front of the property.  The planners have indicated that they intend to refuse the application despite us citing many examples of similar development that has been permitted recently (two of which are in our lane).  We do intend to appeal - however as a backup plan, we have been looking at what might be possible under permitted development instead.

 

We have approximately 5.5m of space at the side of our property between our property and the boundary between our neighbours.  We have an existing 4m x 7m detached single garage that sits in this space ~0.5m from the boundary, but is set approximately 6m back from the principle elevation.

 

Our thoughts are that we could build a new garage as a side extension to the house in the space in front of the existing garage and tag it on to the existing garage.  We would look to keep the existing garage and widen it to bridge the gap between it and the house - in essence incorporating it into the new garage.

 

This would give us a garage that is ~13m long and 5m wide overall.  The garage would have a pitched gabled roof.

 

I have attached a diagram showing the existing dwelling and garage in blue - and the proposed additions in red.  The boundary is indicated by the line to the right hand side of the image.

 

We were even considering making an access point from an adjacent room in the house into the garage.  The new garage would be around 42sqm larger than the existing garage.

 

From reading the PD rules, we believe this would be permissible since it would be classed as a single storey side extension.  It would be 5m wide (which is significantly less than 50% of the width of the existing dwelling - which is almost 17m wide).  It would have pitched room a with 4m ridge line and would have eaves less than 3m in height.

 

We have a couple of question marks however:

 

1.  Is widening and attaching the existing detached garage to the house, or tagging the old garage onto the new permitted under PD rules.  I cannot find any specific rule forbidding bridging between an existing dwelling and an existing detached outbuilding.

2.  Would the proximity to the neighbours boundary be an issue.  Can we build ~0.5m from the boundary as long as the eaves of the garage are at 3m or below (building closer than 2m from the boundary seems to be allowed under permitted development rule A1-i as long as the eaves don't exceed 3m). 

3.  The neighbours have a window that would face the new part of the garage.  Would this cause us any issues?  The neighbours property is elevated relative to ours and I have checked the angle that the new ridge line would form.  Its approximately 10 degrees from the centre of the neighbours window (far below the 23 degree rule).

4.  Would adding an access point directly from the house to the garage be permitted under PD rules - again I can see no specific rule forbidding this.

5.  Would this be subject to a "prior approval" notification.  Again as far as I can tell, this doesn't apply to single storey extensions and would only apply if we wanted to add additional storeys.

 

Thanks

 

 

 

[DevilDamo]

I’m pretty sure it’d be deemed as a front extension so would require Planning. A way round this would be to demolish the existing structure and re-build it on a similar footprint as what you’re proposing as that would then be deemed as a side/rear extension. 

[Moonhawk]

Under PD rule A.1.e, it would only seem to be deemed a front extension if it extended beyond the wall forming the principle elevation of the property. 

 

In this instance the principle elevation is at the top of the diagram above and I have set the garage (in red) approximatly 0.5m further back.  The highway runs parallel to the top of this diagram.

 

"A.1 Development is not permitted by Class A if— (e) the enlarged part of the dwellinghouse would extend beyond a wall which—(i)forms the principal elevation of the original dwellinghouse; or (ii)fronts a highway and forms a side elevation of the original dwellinghouse"

Edited October 9, 2021 by Moonhawk

[DevilDamo]

You can have a staggered principal elevation line as per Page 15 of the Technical Guidance.

 

Looking at it again, the LPA may take a view on how the resulting extension would constitute PD and a side extension as shown may appear to meet the PD criteria. I’ve had experience before where the LPA’s pre-application advice stated that if I was to connect a garage to a house, it would not be deemed as PD. Can’t remember the reasons at present and would have to look back on file.