Planning Permission for the conversion of existing outbuildings to form 2 no. holiday-let units
We recently secured planning permission for the conversion of two residential outbuildings into two holiday-let units.
The site is within a pretty village near Colchester, Essex, on the Essex / Suffolk borders.
Holiday-Let: Planning Background
For this project, we provided planing consultancy services and worked alongside another architecture practice, Invent Architecture.
UK based holidays, sometimes referred to as ‘Staycation’, are becoming more common, which has led to an increase in the number of people exploring options to develop holiday-let accommodation at their properties, for example through the conversion of under-used garages, sheds or annexes or creating glamping sites.
This has proved a great investment for many people. It is also much accessible than ever before with platforms such as Airbnb and Booking.com amongst many others, making it easier to carry out bookings.
A change of use of a building to a holiday-let sometimes requires planning permission, as can any physical modifications and alterations to it.
A planning application was required in this case for just the change of use, as no changes to the building were sought. To find out more about the planning issues we faced, and how we can assist your project, see below.
Holiday Let - The Planning Issues
There were four planning issues to contend with in this instance:
The Principle of Development;
Heritage;
Flood Risk; and
Impact upon neighbouring amenity
The application site is located within a defined settlement boundary, and so the principle of development would ordinarily be acceptable.
Restrictive Planning Conditions - However, this particular property had a long planning history, with a number of planning conditions that placed a very restrictive use on the out buildings, for sleeping purposes. We were required to provided robust evidence to demonstrate why the issues that were controlled by the planning conditions were no longer relevant.
Heritage - The application site is also in a conservation area, with one of the outbuildings physically adjoining a listed building, with a number of other listed buildings in close proximity. It was necessary to provide evidence to demonstrate that the proposed change of use to create holiday accommodation would not have any impact upon the setting or significance of these listed buildings or conservation area.
Flood risk - The site is partially located within Flood Zone 3a. The application was supported by a Flood Risk Assessment and we had to work with the flood risk consultant and the Environment Agency to ensure that the buildings provided safe accommodation for refuge in the event of a flood event.
Neighbour Objections - There were a number of objections to the planning application from the neighbours who feared that that their residential amenity would be detrimentally impacted upon by the change of use of these buildings as it would result in a more active use of the buildings.
The mains concerns were noise and overlooking. We provided evidence in support of the planning application that demonstrated that the proposed change of use to holiday accommodation would meet the residential amenity standards set out in the adopted local plan and Essex Design Guide and that overlooking and noise impacts would not occur.
We are very pleased that the Council accepted the evidence submitted and promptly approved the planning application.
Are you planning a Holiday-let Business?
Do you have plans to create holiday accommodation, and would like planning advice, or are you planning to convert a residential outbuilding for another purpose? if so contact us by emailing mail@adpltd.co.uk or filling out the form below:
