Wiltshire Council: Dan Wilden has recently secured planning consent for alterations and conversion of an integral garage into living accommodation in Bradford on Avon in Wiltshire with plans provided by FlowerKittle Architects.
The conversion of an integral garage to living accommodation is a commonly undertaken development as it is a cost effective way of creating additional living space. Typically this does not require planning permission because it is not a material change of use and the alteration works (such as replacing the garage door with a window) normally fall within permitted development.
However sometimes houses have had rights to do this withdrawn by way of a planning condition attached to the original planning permission. Usually, as in this case, they specify that the garage must be maintained available for the parking of a car and this is because the garage formed part of the parking requirement of the development.
In this case an additional parking space had been created on the site frontage when the property was built and so the garage was no longer needed to meet the parking requirement. As such the highway officer had no issue with the conversion as proposed.
If you have a similar situation where a garage conversion requires planning permission why not speak to Pure Town Planning to find out if we can help.