Policy information sourced from the The Dartford Plan
Policy M10: Extensions, New Dwellings, and Garden Land
Development must maintain a range of dwelling sizes and sufficient garden land, retain or enhance the character, local environment and amenity of established residential areas, and achieve satisfactory quality of development.
Development which results in an unacceptable loss of residential garden land will be refused. Proposals must demonstrate that they would not result in harm, individually or cumulatively, arising from:
- loss of diversity in the stock of housing in the Borough; or
- erosion of the local character; or
- significant loss of residential garden land serving the health, recreation and/ or functional needs of the occupiers.
The extension of dwellings or the creation of new dwellings by infill or conversion must also ensure that they meet the following principles:
- the historical pattern and form of development is preserved, and the design proposed is not visually obtrusive, with existing significant landscape features retained and/ or any loss mitigated;
- access into the development is safe and facilitates ease of pedestrian movement;
- access into the development does not create an undue disruption to the character and appearance of an existing road frontage or unacceptable disturbance to adjacent properties; and
- the proposal does not materially harm existing residential amenity, including through overlooking, loss of privacy, loss of daylight/ sunlight, visual impact, noise, increased level of activity and disturbance, or increased onstreet parking.
The conversion of a single dwelling house of 120sqm or less original net internal floor space into two or more units will not be permitted unless it is clearly shown there is a surplus of single dwelling houses of this scale within the neighbourhood and it can be demonstrated that there is no harm to the character or amenity of the surrounding area. The conversion of terraced houses will not be permitted unless demonstrated to result in beneficial outcomes for both townscape character and residential amenity of both new and existing surrounding residents.
Policy information sourced from the The Dartford Plan