Jan' 2010

'Don't Move, Improve'

                                                                                                                                                    

3D Guides at The Building Centre, Store Street, London

On Saturday 23rd January The Building Centre held its main public open day for the 'Don't Move, Improve' event organised in conjunction with Time Out. This open day proved to be very popular, particularly for the two main talks held in their conference centre with over 200 people filling the room to capacity.

Stephen Ibbitson of 3D Guides ran a 'surgery' for the public in the Centre's main foyer and also made a presentation on permitted development at the first of the day's talks in the conference centre.

The 'surgery' was very busy throughout the day with a total of about a dozen people seeking guidance on a wide variety of issues they'd encountered in trying to understand their permitted development rights. Interestingly, several people wanted to know how to stop their neighbours doing something! That was something we didn't expect, but just about the only answer to that is to say "lobby parliament to change the law"!

During the talk, the other speakers, both archtects, presented outlines of the advantages of using an architect to design your extension. There's no doubt that architects will often come up with high quality designs, often contemporary, which would certainly appeal to those with a large enough budget. However, whether most householders wanting simple and economic solutions to getting a bit more space would feel the costs justified is another matter.

One thing permitted development does do, is provide a kind of template to standard extensions and the like which are space creating, generally simple and relatively inexpensive to carry out and, crucially, proceedable with. 'High end' architect designs are unlikely to fall within the constraints of PD, so the householder will be subject to the full planning permission process and all the delays and uncertainty that can entail, especially when there's a neighbour who doesn't want to see any changes to a cherished local scene, even if the planners are happy with a scheme.

There may be more 'Don't Move, Improve' events coming up at the Building Centre. Watch this space for more news.