bodgeJobRob
New member
Newbie to the forum. I'm a D&T teacher by day job, but also a keen DIY'er and getting into wood work. Fairly experienced in terms of DIY having converted my Garage into a family room, and built my own conservatory from the ground up.
Just brought a cheapo table saw after getting the bug for woodwork from my school's awesome D&T technician but have now outgrown my current home workshop (a 12x8 shed).
Right now, I'm just planning ahead for my new 'dream' workshop and wondered if those older and wiser than me could shed some opinions? ideas?
I want to build the new shop over the site of the old one pictured, which is situated right up against the fence that separates the front drive and back garden. We're lucky to have a huge bit of space running down the side of our house, and a pretty nice size driveway (shown in attached pics) - I want to build into the front driveway, and basically rebuild the fence that's already there into a corner as depicted by the bit's of timber on the floor, extending to 300mm short of the neighbors boundary to give maintenance access, This would then give me room to build a 5.5x4m workshop on the footprint.
I know the permitted dev rules require planning for outbuildings forward of the property front elevation, and will obviously seek this, but I don't anticipate it being a battle to get this approved given what my attached neighbor has done on the other side, however, I wanted to do some of the ground work for this during this year's Summer Holidays, while seeking planning (and saving up) with a mind to doing the actual workshop build next year.
I guess my main question is, can I legally extend my current fence, into the shape proposed without planning permission for the time being? (current fence has not got long left anyway). I can't seem to find an obvious answer to this. Forget building the workshop for now, is it ok to move my back garden effectively into my front? To my mind, it should be.
I'd have built the bigger workshop in the back garden except previous owner built a huge 10,000L Koi Pond on the plot, which is now full of fish, and Wife is not happy about losing! (happy wife, happy life etc..) Hence why I want to go forward, into what is essentially an unused part of the driveway. The pictures should make it clearer. Currently the back garden is elevated about 2 ft from the side access, you can just make out the retaining wall. I'd plan to extend the retaining wall, but at a lower height, and effectivley level out the land between the pond and the new wall - i.e, what comes off the top, will help to level the driveway portion (with hardcore/compactor etc etc)
