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Planning Permission for Wimbledon Building of Townscape Merit Awarded in Record Time
Dyer Grimes Architecture are delighted to announce that we have received planning permission in Wimbledon to renovate and extend a Building of Townscape Merit, including the construction of a 2000 sqft basement.
Thanks to close collaboration between ourselves, Merton Council and Sally Arnold of Planning Potential, we were able to undertake a pre-application and receive planning permission just five months after our first meeting with the client – far shorter than the ten to twelve months one would usually expect.
Even more unprecedented was to be granted planning permission without any pre-commencement conditions, allowing us to start work on site just two weeks later.
As we had carried out the design and tender concurrently with the planning process, we were able to take full advantage of our head start and are already working on site, as you can see in the photo below, where a digger removes the rubble of what was once a side extension.
This all comes as a relief to the client, who had been stuck in six months of planning quagmire with the previous architect they had commissioned for the project, who had never managed to take them beyond the pre-application phase.
Instead of worrying whether they had bought the wrong house, the client can look forward to a home with a fully renovated interior, restored exterior and a full-plan basement complete with its own swimming pool.
Full credit has to go to the planning officials at Merton Council for how professionally they responded to our questions and expedited the process, as well as Sally Arnold, who was instrumental in the success of our Fast Track strategy.