Appeal Decision 83 - Certificate of Lawful Development.

The following appeal summary has been written by Steve Speed, and is available on his website www.planningjungle.com

25 January 2010 – 45 Lynwood Road, London, SW17 8SB  

Planning Inspectorate Reference: APP/H5960/X/09/2115991 

Inspector: David Pinner BSc (Hons) DipTP MRTPI 

London Borough of Wandsworth Reference: 2009/2972 

Summary of Case (appeal allowed): 

The property is a two-storey terrace house.  From the appeal decision notice, and from an aerial photo, it appears that the property originally had a small single storey rear projection, which has subsequently been replaced by a full-width single storey rear extension.  The application was for the proposed replacement of this existing full-width single storey rear extension with a new full-width single storey rear projection. 

The key issue was whether the proposed extension would be contrary to Class A, part A.1(h), which states that “Development is not permitted by Class A if … the enlarged part of the dwellinghouse would extend beyond a wall forming a side elevation of the original dwellinghouse, and would— … (ii) have a width greater than half the width of the original dwellinghouse”. 

The Inspector stated the following: 

“The side elevation in question was the flank wall of an original extension that was demolished some time before the current extension was built, rather than as part of the same building operation as the construction of the extension. The Council’s argument is that A.1(h) does not indicate that the relevant wall has still to be in existence to have a bearing on whether or not an extension would be permitted by Class A.  

In my view, it is clear from the wording of A.1(h) that the relevant wall has to exist at the time of assessment. The wording used is “a wall forming a side elevation of the original dwelling house”. “Forming” is present tense, so if it no longer exists, a wall cannot continue to form a side elevation of the original dwelling.” 

[The above conclusion should be compared with the appeal decision for 18 November 2009 – Pembroke House, Parsonage Lane, which concluded that the determination of which elevation forms “the principal elevation of the original dwellinghouse” should be based on the original building in its original form, rather than only considering those parts of the original building that still currently exist.  There may be a contradiction between these two conclusions]. 

Main Conclusions: 

·       The phrase “a wall forming a side elevation of the original dwellinghouse” does not apply to an original side wall that has previously been demolished. 
[Relevant to: A.1(h), A.2(b), E.3]. 

Link to case on Planning Inspectorate website: 

http://www.pcs.planningportal.gov.uk/pcsportal/ViewCase.asp?casename=APP/H5960/X/09/2115991&caseaddress=COO.2036.300.8.2678621 

Link to LPA website: 

www.wandsworth.gov.uk 

Download documents and diagrams of useful

Permitted Development information