The PLANNING Station and Hodgson Architectural Services have secured the very first Prior approval in County Durham for the change of use of a storage building to a dwellinghouse.
The taste of success is even sweeter given the approval comes on the back of failed attempts to secure planning permission for the demolition of the building (a former pit pony stable) and the erection of a new dwellinghouse. This was refused on the sustainability of location alone.
I know, it is a weird Planning system isn’t it? The system doesn’t support the development through one route but is fully supportive through the other. Quite nonsensical.
Part 3, Class P of Schedule 2 of the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 makes provision for the change of use of a building and any land within its curtilage from its use falling within Class B8 (storage or distribution centres) to a use falling within Class C3 (dwelling houses).
Darren Ridley Associate Royal Town Planning Institute Consultant,
The Planning Station [17 March 2017]
First Class P Home in Durham
Storage to Residential secured in Co Durham
However, this process may only be followed where the proposed works fully comply with the conditions as set out within the class. Where proposed works do not comply with such criteria, the Local Planning Authority may express the right to refuse the application. And, these are the hoops one must jump through to get approval.
(a) Site must have been used solely for storage on 19th March 2014.
(b) Building must be used solely for a storage or distribution centre for a period of at least 4 years before the Class P development commences.
(c) The use of the building falling within Class C3 (dwellinghouses) of that Schedule must not commence after 15th April 2018.
(d) The gross floor space of the existing building must not exceed 500m2.
(e) The site must not be occupied under an agricultural tenancy.
(f) More than 1 year before the date the development begins the agricultural tenancy must be terminated.
(g) The building must not be within an area of outstanding natural beauty, an area specified by the Secretary of State for the purposes of section 41(3) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981(a), the Broads, a National Park, or a World Heritage Site.
(h) The site must not be, or forms part of, a site of special scientific interest, a safety hazard area, or a military explosives storage area.
(i) The building must not be a listed building or within the curtilage of a listed building.
(j) The site must not be, or contain, a scheduled monument.
Where the development proposed under Class P is permitted, the developer is required to apply to the LPA for a determination as to whether the prior approval of the Local Planning Authority is required, taking into account the following considerations:
(a) impacts of air quality on the intended occupiers of the development;
(b) transport and highways impacts of the development,
(c) contamination risks in relation to the building,
(d) flooding risks in relation to the building,
(e) noise impacts of the development, and
(f) where the Authority considers the building to which the development relates is located in an area that is important for providing storage or distribution services or industrial services or a mix of those services, whether the introduction of, or an increase in, a residential use of premises in the area would have an adverse impact on the sustainability of the provision of those services. Continue
Model of proposed conversion -
The former pit pony stables -
