Skip to main content

Decision details

Confirmation of Article 4 Direction for Basements

Decision Maker: Cabinet Member for Built Environment

Decision status: Recommendations Approved

Is Key decision?: Yes

Is subject to call in?: No

Purpose:

This report seeks a decision to confirm the Article 4 Direction suspending permitted development rights for basements across Westminster.

Decision:

1.       That the Cabinet Member confirmed a borough-wide, non-immediate Article 4 direction to remove permitted development rights granted by Schedule 2, Part 1, Class A of the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 for the enlargement, improvement or other alteration of a dwellinghouse, by way of basement development, lightwells, or any other development below the dwellinghouse or its curtilage to come into effect on 31 July 2016.

 

 

1.       To ensure appropriate regulation of basement development within the dense urban form of the city.

 

2.       With the introduction of the basement revision and its more restrictive requirements, there would be an incentive for some owners to construct basements using their permitted development rights rather than applying for planning permission under the new policy. Such development would not be subject to any of the requirements of the basements policy, or the Code of Construction Practice, which have been carefully drafted to mitigate harmful construction and other impacts on residents and on the residential character of the Borough. Basements are not limited to particular areas of the city, and therefore the risk of basements potentially being built using permitted development rights is also Borough-wide.

 

Publication date: 30/06/2016

Date of decision: 30/06/2016

Accompanying Documents: