Sean Spurr
Plans have been lodged with Barnet Council to convert 130-134 Granville Road in Childs Hill from storage into 12 flats. The designs, drawn up by Brooks Murray, argue that the existing building is suitable for conversion under the permitted development scheme despite being over the maximum 500sqm.
The designs, drawn up by Brooks Murray, argue that the existing building is suitable for conversion under the permitted development scheme despite being over the maximum 500sqm because part of a building can be defined as a building. They cite a precedent from a case in neighbouring Camden where a building over the maximum floorspace was granted rights to convert under the permitted development order by defining only part of the building as the building for the purpose of the application.
In this case, the reduction in floorspace to meet the criteria has been achieved by excluding the front part of the first floor from the application. 2 of the flats have separate bedrooms, the rest are studios. Given there is only 500sqm to play with under the permitted development rules, these are obviously relatively small.
It appears unlikely the conversion will go ahead anyway – the site is located next to a recent new build offering far more floorspace, and it would seem this application is more of a position to increase the value of the site or to decrease affordable housing obligations for a later new build application.
Existing site photo: Google.
