Plainview today won an appeal for a third floor extension and roof terrace in the London Borough of Camden under difficult circumstances.
The refused application was the third attempt at gaining new floor space with roof terrace above at the existing two bedroom flat on a typical Victorian London townhouse. Each time, the council planning officers refused the application due to its “overbearing” nature, citing issues of overshadowing, privacy and outlook.
Our client finally had enough and sought professional representation to take this latest refused application to the planning inspectorate for appeal.
We built a successful case which focused on the poor methodology that Camden Council used to assess issues of overshadowing and outlook, and submitted our own independently assessed study which correctly followed BRE guidelines and British Standard 8206 – 2: 2008 – ‘Lighting for Buildings – Part 2: Code of Practice for Daylighting’.
We also provided a comprehensive built context assessment and analysis, identifying the minimal impact of the roof extension and terrace, looking specifically at building orientation, distances, massing, built pattern, and precedent.
To further add significant weight to our arguments, we also highlighted to the planning inspectorate the sustainable nature of the development – that it provided a new three bedroom flat in an excellent location, and met the specific housing needs of the authority area. These are all important and material planning points which Camden Council had failed to consider.
Plainview have extensive experience of roof extensions, additional floors, and terraces not only in the London boroughs but across the country. Usually clients are seeking additional space to grow families, for hobbies, provide new outside amenity space or just want to generally improve living conditions. Many of the extensions we deal with are located in Conservation Areas, or associated with or adjacent to listed buildings.
Such development is intrinsically sustainable given that they utilise existing land and buildings to improve quality of life. Such development is widely supported in policy, but often ignored by local planning authorities and councils.
If you have a question relating to this case, or are considering a similar development, please do not hesitate to contact one of the team via info@plainview.co.uk or on 01242 50 10 03.