Prior approval drawings in Barnet

Grants and refusals for larger home extensions in Barnet

The national planning returns record 18 larger home extension prior approvals granted and 103 refused here in the period shown. That is a large imbalance, and it tells an owner that the route is not a formality in this borough.

Householder applications behave differently. Barnet decided 1,361 of them in the latest twelve months and granted 80.2 per cent, with 95.1 per cent decided in time. Owners who want certainty about a deep extension sometimes find a householder application the calmer choice, because the officer can negotiate the design instead of refusing it.

Appeals show the other side. The Planning Inspectorate decided 413 householder appeals from Barnet over the five-year window in our data, and allowed 50.6 per cent of them. Those are results about the whole borough, and no promise about any house.

The ground your house stands on

Barnet is a mixed borough. Roughly 52.5 per cent of households live in a house or bungalow, and those houses are the ones the larger extension route is written for. A semi-detached home averages £850,442, and a terraced one £634,437.

Land designations decide whether the route opens at all. The council publishes 16 conservation areas, and the larger extension route does not apply inside them. Green belt covers 28 per cent of the borough, and the borough has 8 registered parks and gardens that can shape what is acceptable next to them.

We map all of this in the free constraints check, using the council's published layers, before any drawing work is quoted.

Drawing the notification for a Barnet semi

The route suits a single-storey rear extension on a Barnet semi or terrace that needs to reach further than ordinary permitted development allows. The limits are 6 m (attached) / 8 m (detached), single storey, height max 4 m; not on article 2(3) land or an SSSI. We take the depth from the original rear wall, and we mark every habitable window on the attached neighbour's side.

The Order asks for a written description, a site plan, the addresses of adjoining premises and a contact address, and once it is received the LPA notifies adjoining owners/occupiers, giving at least 21 days for representations. The development may start if no decision arrives within 42 days, though we recommend written confirmation first.

Our independent check is carried out by someone who did not draw the sheets, and who reads them against the Order's list of required information.

What a complete Barnet submission contains

The Order asks for less paper than a householder application, and that tempts owners to send too little. For this route the Order lists the following: Written description (depth beyond rear wall, max height, eaves height), site plan, addresses of adjoining premises, developer contact address. We add scaled plans, elevations and a section through the extension, because an officer who can read the proposal in a minute has fewer questions.

In a borough with a refusal count this high, completeness is not a courtesy. We also include a short covering note that sets out the depth from the original rear wall and the height at the eaves, so the figures an officer must check are on the first page and not buried in a drawing.

Choosing between prior approval and a certificate in Barnet

Barnet recorded 785 lawful development certificate applications in the same period, which is a clear sign that many owners can build within ordinary limits. If your extension is that size, a Lawful Development Certificate in Barnet proves it without a neighbour consultation.

If you need more depth than the certificate route allows, prior approval is the middle route. If the council is likely to refuse and you want a design negotiated, our planning drawings in Barnet take it through a householder application instead.

Our architectural drawings in Barnet page lists every other service we run locally, and neighbours should look at prior approval drawings in Harrow or prior approval drawings in Enfield.