We need (bursting at the seams) to extend the kitchen in our new house, which will involve knocking down a very old and decrepit conservatory. We'd also like to put an extra bedroom on top of it - this should all (pending a chat with the neighbours) fall under permitted development, unless we want to go out the extra metre upstairs in which case we'll have to go down the planning permission route. Ballpark given by a few builders has been in the region of £30-35k, plus the actual kitchen. I'd like to have a small utility room and cloakroom put in too.
An architectural technician has quoted us £450 to do the plans (that was when we were just going to do downstairs, so presumably he'd charge a bit more for upstairs as well). An architect will charge £1300+VAT for design (a couple of suggestions) and plan, plus £2k for building plans (ie in more detail, which builders can work from), check it's in PD, building control etc. If we want them to project manage it's £90ph. They also said we'll need a structural engineer.
Both were really nice and not pushy but I don't know which way to jump. Obviously there's a massive price difference, but the first one didn't mention more detailed plans or an engineer so I'm really confused. This is the first ever project like this we've done so I need some advice!!