Suggestions for DIY front elevation drawings for PP

[Tigerbalmshark]

We live in a conservation area and have been told by the council that we need to submit a full planning application for… a small bike shed. With front elevation drawings, accurate site plans, fire evacuation plans etc. The front elevation of the house will not actually be changing in any way.

Ludicrous, and I really do not want to spend £500 on architect cad drawings for the sake of a £300 bike shed. Yes I have pushed back and they are adamant they need it.

So, what free software would people recommend? Ease of use obviously fairly important here.

Is it a purpose built structure? The manufacturer should have drawings that could be used.

Oh dear, did you ask the council already?

I’m in a conservation area and when I asked around neighbours, the consensus was just go ahead without PP and do the bike shed and it’ll be fine. And it has been.

Unfortunately if you asked already I’m not sure that avenue is available.

Can you take a good photo front on and get Chat GTP to draw the facade?
It might work.

For the bike shed yes the manufacturer has supplied them, but they also want front elevations drawings of the actual house! To show how it will look with a bike shed in front of it.

Tried that! First it wasn’t all that accurate, and second it doesn’t have the scale etc you need for architect drawings.

Has your house had pp applications previously - by a prior owner? If so there might be elevations available online and you could cut and paste somehow?!

Oh shame. Try Gemini Pro (free) it might be better.

Yep in hindsight I agree. I was expecting them to say it wasn’t needed! They say “planning permission is not needed for small non-permanent structures such as bike stores”. So I thought I was just covering myself…

Is the bike shed actually attached to the house?

If not I think that you should refuse to provide that information. If the house itself is not changing in appearance it sounds OTT to ask for full drawings of the house.

I believe that you can appeal against their refusal to validate a planning application to the planning inspectorate.

Tell them you want to go down that route and ask how you proceed with it. It might refocus their minds on what they actually need.

Take a photo of the front of your house and trace it. Then scan and resize to the correct scale on the computer (by dropping the image into Google docs and resizing using the page ruler).

I know it sounds nuts but this is basically what I did for our pp.

If the only thing that is outstanding on the application is one elevation drawing, I would consider drawing one by hand on graph paper if you feel up to it. By the time you've tried to teach yourself how to use some software, I bet you could draw something good enough to get through validation. It doesn't need to be the snazziest drawing in the world, just correctly scaled and demonstrates exactly how the shed will interact with the building.

Then surely you can just go ahead?

You will probably also need a site map. I drew my own planning drawings in Visio but had to pay for a scale site map from an online place that licences ordinance survey maps.

Don't use old drawings without permission. A neighbour used next doors plans and the architect that drew them objected to the submission!

Using somebody elses copywritten plans are not a reason for a planning application to be refused. So that objection would have held zero ground.

True. But stealing someone's work without permission is bad. And getting called out on it publicly must have been embarrassing.

No they replied to say that didn’t apply because we’re in a conservation area…

I would happily swipe somebody else’s plans but sadly all the houses are very subtly different so that wouldn’t work. We did look at previous submissions! Current plan is to resubmit without and point out again that the front elevation isn’t changing, and hope they drop it.

Site plan is less of an issue as I have all the measurements etc. @Rollercoaster1920 how did you do it in Visio? How did you get it to scale?

Squared paper, pencil, pen ruler - measure your house and do it yourself. It's really not hard. Honestly! I've done it myself and can promise you a hand drawn elevation is absolutely fine. CAD is totally overthinking things.

Visio enabled exact measurements to be entered in the shape properties so I could create shapes and draw a scale accurately.

Other tools like lucid and miro probably would work in a similar way.

My council demanded a location plan from OS maps as well as the site plan. Totally pointless because their own website has the location on a map! But you have to follow the rules.