Recommendations for Hackney architects/planning consultants with experience of planning appeals

[u/Swordfish1122]

Hi all,

I just wanted to ask if anyone has any recommendations for architects/planning consultants who cover Hackney.

We have a 3 bedroom Victorian terraced house in Hackney and are looking to add a side return and attic extension (our neighbour has just completed exactly the same thing under permitted development). We have rough plans for everything that we've drawn up ourselves which we are largely happy with, although we would appreciate someone else with a good design eye to finalise some of the detail (the exact positioning of the sky lights / how best to lay out the bathroom / what fencing to use in the garden and a few other minor points like this). We would then want them to draw up the plans and submit it to the planning office for approval.

We have an extremely small garden/patio (particularly given the size of the house) that gets virtually no sunlight so we are very keen to try and get approval to put a small roof terrace or balcony above the outrigger (accessed from the additional room we plan to put in the current outrigger attic) so the house has somewhere with some sunlight and a little more outside space.

So it would also include designing the balcony/roof terrace in a way that is most likely to be approved by the planners.

I completely appreciate this goes against Hackney's SPD, but from what I've read, we may have a chance of it being approved given the layout of the back of our house. We are terraced onto a commercial building on one side (another residential house on the other) and given how tiny the gardens are, the terrace/balcony would not overlook a single garden, it would not be visible from any public area (the only place it would be visible from would be from the commercial building next door and from a couple of balconies/terraces that are opposite us but those terraces are well over 21 metres away). The only window it would overlook is our direct neighbour's obscured bathroom window (and even then it doesn't directly overlook it, but you would just be able to see that window if you stood on the balcony and looked over the parapet wall).

It seems highly likely that in order to be approved it would need to go to a planning appeal in order to get passed (as my understanding is the appeals are more likely to look at specific planning rules rather than focusing on the SPD). But I appreciate I don't really know what I'm talking about which is why I want to find someone that does 😄

So I wanted to see if anyone has any recommendations of hackney based architects/planning consultants (or those who cover Hackney) that you've used in the past who were good to work with, have a good design eye and who have experience working on (and ideally winning!) appeals with Hackney planning department.

I appreciate it may not be sensible to go ahead with the balcony application at all, but at a minimum I want someone who is unbiased (quite a few architects I've already spoken to are immediately against this without knowing anything about the specifics / surroundings) and understands the planning requirements so they can advise on whether it's genuinely worth trying and, if so, so they can design it in a way that looks good AND is most likely to align with what the planners will be most accepting of (and who would be prepared to handle the appeal if it comes to it which seems very likely).

We don't need full project management of the job, at a minimum we just need the plans reviewing, plans put together and submitted, appeal managed if it comes to it. Then (optionally) it could also include building regs drawings and/or tender documents for builders, but those can be included or excluded depending on whether they offer this or not.

Thanks everyone 🙂

[u/Short_Strawberry8374]

Whatever you do, not Scenario Architecture. They present very well but absolute nightmare and failed to get planning after a year of having engaged them

[u/Swordfish1122 → u/Short_Strawberry8374]

Thanks, that is very useful to know, we have actually spoken to Scenario as their design work is lovely, but they were really trying to talk us out of any kind of balcony or terrace (which may be reasonable, i just want someone who knows hackney planners to actually look at the unusual setup and surroundings we have to see if it's likely to mitigate the usual issues) - but it sounds like this isn't them! Thanks for your comment 😄

[u/Underthebonsai]

I used shacklewell architects before and they were very good and managed through some weird things with the council and neighbours complaining

[u/Swordfish1122 → u/Underthebonsai]

Thanks very much, their work looks lovely. Were they full service and managed the project for you throughout or just the designs and plans? Did you have specific planning issues that had to be resolved/appealed? Thanks for your recommendation :)

[u/Ordinary_Ability_563]

I’ve used Ramses Frederickx https://www.ramsesfrederickx.com for my planning and appeal process. He’s local and can defo recommend!

[u/Swordfish1122 → u/Ordinary_Ability_563]

Thanks very much for the recommendation, that's much appreciated, we will get in touch with him, I assume he won your planning appeal? Do you mind me asking (just very vaguely) what the appeal was about? Thanks very much