Kitchen Extension

[adsie]

Hi,

We have a mid-terrace Victorian house in Ealing, West London. The floor plan is "L" shaped, with the kitchen sticking out the back. We want to expand the kitchen sideways so as to fill the missing part of the rectangle. The affected neighbour wants to do the same and there are plenty of similar extensions in the neighborhood. We already have a loft conversion of 28 cubic meters and the previous owners extended the depth of the kitchen to add another 11 cubic meters. Our proposed kitchen extension would add another 23 cubic meters, which would take us over the permitted 50 cubic meters. The council are exhaustingly inept and unhelpful. They have refused the application but stated that they would accept an extension only as deep as the original kitchen, for which we will need to reapply. The reason they give for refusing is light, character, etc., none of which seem to apply under the circumstances. The original plans call for a party wall of 2.2m. We can erect a 2m party wall without permission. Do we need to pay again if we reapply? Do we need to reapply since they have already said they would approve it? Can anyone offer advice on getting us something near what me want?

Thanks.

[Roger Mills]

I would hope that you would be able to submit revised plans under the origianl application without further fee, since they rejected the first lot, but I'm not sure. You still need official planning permission even if they have indicated that they are likely to accept a revised application.

If you want to get closer to your original objective it may pay to buy an hour or two's time from an independent planning consulant. Many of these are ex-planners and know the system inside out - so they can advise you how to present your application in a way which is most likely to succeed - or even how to appeal should you wish to do that. Look in Yellow Pages, and ring up one or two before employing one.

[adsie]

Thanks Roger