Planning permission needed for basement level front garden bike storage?

[TTW]

Hi, wondered if anyone could give me some advice on this.

We have a neglected basement level front garden that we are interested in renovating to build a bike storage shed (a permanent structure out of brick with a flat paved roof).

This will be within the property boundary and below street level (it will be in line with the lower ground floor entrance; the roof will be just below street/pavement level) so it will not really be visible from the street.

We are within the Holly Grove conservation area.

Do you think we will need to see planning permission from Southwark Council?

 

Any advice much appreciated.

 

 

Edited July 29, 2023 by TTW

[Rockets]

Don't ask for permission beg for forgiveness if it becomes a problem. The Southwark system is not built for such things and whilst you are supposed to get it reviewed and approved the system is built for house extensions etc. When we did it and went for approval it became a real challenge because they wanted architectural drawings etc and no-one goes to that level of detail for a bike shed.

 

My advice would be as long as your neighbours won't complain the go for it. Keep it within the Asgard size bike shed sizes and you should be fine.

[micromacromonkey]

Build it out of concrete blocks for security, with wooden cladding for aesthetics. The blockwork structure probably requires planning, but wooden ones almost certainly don't and nobody will know what's underneath 🙂

I have a plan to do the same in my front garden.

[TTW]

54 minutes ago, Rockets said:

Don't ask for permission beg for forgiveness if it becomes a problem. The Southwark system is not built for such things and whilst you are supposed to get it reviewed and approved the system is built for house extensions etc. When we did it and went for approval it became a real challenge because they wanted architectural drawings etc and no-one goes to that level of detail for a bike shed.

 

My advice would be as long as your neighbours won't complain the go for it. Keep it within the Asgard size bike shed sizes and you should be fine.

Interesting. Can I ask what happened with yours in the end? Did you have to draw up plans etc?

[Sally Eva]

ring and ask them for guidance.

If you proceed without PP (and it turns out to be necessary), you may run into problems when you sell.

Probably just mean buying indemnity insurance, but why not just get their views now

 

[SpringTime]

I wouldn't alert Southwark myself. Take the risk - sounding low risk anyway. An indemnity policy at the time of sale is quick, easy and relatively very inexpensive, if you need it at all.

[alice]

If it’s visible from the street then there will be those who will report it to Southwark as in conservation area. 
I would check out area to see if anyone else has done something similar and see if it comes up on Southwark’s planning website. 

[Penguin68]

If it's a permanent structure in a conservation area then I think you will need permission - even though I suspect outside a conservation area you wouldn't. Your objective (secure storage for a bicycle in a non-obtrusive structure) may well be nodded through - it matches the council's own world-view - but if it hasn't had permission then any complaint would necessarily cause the council to take action. That's what a conservation area is there for. And there will be a local prodnose who will choose to complain.

My daughter had such a private complaint (for different sorts of work) against her upheld by the council who demanded a huge fee for restoration, until she reminded them that it was their workforce who had done the work, against her advice (as it was a conservation area!) - luckily she had the email audit trail as evidence! In that case the 'works' part of the council were working off different conservation area maps than the conservation department. Not Southwark in this instance.

[TTW]

If anyone is interested/looking to do something similar, I ended up speaking to Southwark's planning department and their advice is: 

'planning permission will be required for the bike shed at this location.

I can reassure you that the Council will support this scheme and will seek to fast track a decision as soon as an application is received.'

[Rockets]

TTW - are they still asking for architectural plans/drawings or have they amended the process? 

 

[TTW]

On 30/08/2023 at 13:33, Rockets said:

TTW - are they still asking for architectural plans/drawings or have they amended the process? 

 

They want a basic scale drawing but have suggested I could do it myself. We need a structural engineer because of the retaining wall and he is going to do the drawing.