The brief
75 Ravensbourne Drive is a house in Woodley with an attached garage to the side. The owners wanted a larger ground floor, so the plan combines a garage conversion with a single storey extension to the front and side.
Design
The extension wraps around the front of the former garage and the side of the house, with a pitched roof and brickwork, tiles and windows to match the existing house. The converted garage becomes habitable space, joined to the new rooms at the front and side. The roof plan shows how the new roofs tie into the existing ones without raising the main roof.
Parking
Converting a garage removes a parking space, which Wokingham Borough Council checks against its parking standards. The block plan shows two parking spaces on the drive in front of the house, so the scheme still provides the parking the council expects for a house of this size.
Bats and biodiversity
The council's mapping places the site inside an area where bats are more likely to be present. Our biodiversity statement explained that the works would not affect the main roof, and a preliminary bat roost assessment was also prepared by an ecologist, so the council had the evidence it needs under the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 before deciding.
Drawings
The drawing set includes existing and proposed elevations, the proposed ground floor and roof plan, existing and proposed block plans, a site plan and the location plan. The proposed elevations show the front, side and rear of the house, with the new roofs and the window that replaces the garage door. Clear drawings and the ecology evidence together allow the council to assess a scheme like this without asking for more information, and they also give the builder a reliable basis for pricing the work.
Constraints we checked
We also checked the effect on the attached neighbour, the building line of the street under Core Strategy policy CP3 and the Wokingham Borough Design Guide SPD, and drainage for the new roofs. The application included the CIL form and location plan.
