Most homeowners hire an architect, pay for drawings, and only find out at planning stage whether the council will say yes. A feasibility study flips that around: we read the real planning decisions on and around your street first, so you know the likely answer, and the smartest route to it, up front.
A worked sample for a typical semi-detached house on this street, built only from public planning decisions.
The officer had no objection to a gable in principle, but the scheme was judged top-heavy and not subordinate to the pair, and it breached the 50 cubic metre permitted-development volume cap. Eleven weeks later a smaller scheme at 49.1 cubic metres was granted as a Lawful Development Certificate. The lesson: the gable is not banned, volume and subordination decide it.
On the same semi-detached typology, a hip-to-gable plus rear dormer totalling 44.8 cubic metres was certified without objection, comfortably inside the 50 cubic metre cap. The direct precedent that both can be done together when dimensioned carefully.
A recent grant with zero objections, showing the council's current appetite for adding a dormer to an existing loft alongside a rear extension.
The route conclusion for a semi like this: the cleanest path is a carefully dimensioned scheme kept under the 50 cubic metre cap via a Lawful Development Certificate. Full planning is higher-risk unless the design is genuinely subordinate, exactly where the 2016 refusal fell down.
A full study like the sample above, generated from the public planning record and delivered fast. Clearly labelled AI-generated.
A qualified planner checks and signs off the study, for when you want a human eye and professional assurance before you commit.
Claim your practice with your official work email and get one free precedent study on a live project. One per practice.