Explaining the difference between Planning Permission and Permitted Development Rights.

Most home owners are completely amazed at the differences and inconsistencies between the two types of grantable council Building Consent for residential home extensions.

The classic question being......

Why can I build this carbuncle of a hideous PD extension in this location but I simply keep getting refused for another better designed extension in my preferred location to the dwelling?

Well, that's Planning and Planning Officers for you.  Homeowners need to understand that when a home extension requires formal Planning Consent, the design proposal has to be filtered through the councils many faceted Planning Policy some of which is very prescriptive whilst other areas are very subjective often affected by the public consultation process so hence the inconsistent outcomes for what may be similar proposals to different dwellings.

Permitted Development or PD on the other hand is simply a binary legal determination.  What you are proposing is either legal or its not legal under the CURRENT PD rules and criteria.  PD does NOT need any filtering through the relevant Planning Policy which is mainly impact based. 

Watch this excellent overview video on the use of formal Planning Permssion vs Permitted Development from NextPhase.