England has a route Wales simply doesn’t have: a single storey rear extension of up to 8 metres, without a full planning application. Here’s what Cheshire West and Chester allows, what it costs, and how Mike handles the whole thing from 15 minutes down the road.
⚡ Get an instant estimate 📋 Book a £60 site visit ⓘ In Wales instead?Chester sits in England, under Cheshire West and Chester Council — so don’t use Welsh guidance, and don’t assume what your cousin in Flintshire got away with applies to you. As a broad guide: a single storey rear extension can normally project 4 metres on a detached house or 3 metres on a semi or terrace under Permitted Development, subject to height limits, boundary distances, materials, and whether previous extensions have already eaten your allowance.
Then there’s the part most people in Chester have never been told about. England also has a Larger Home Extension prior approval route, made permanent in 2019, which takes that to 8 metres on a detached house and 6 metres on a semi or terrace — no full planning application, just a neighbour consultation. Your neighbours get 21 days to comment. If none objects, the council confirms it and you build. Wales has no equivalent. It is the single biggest difference between a Chester extension and a Deeside one, and it is worth thousands in floor space.
Mike surveys your home himself — no juniors, no outsourcing. The £60 visit fee comes off your fee when you go ahead.
Scaled drawings of your home as it is and as it will be — the documents any application stands on.
Permitted Development, prior approval at 8 metres, or a full householder application. Choosing correctly is where the money is saved.
The technical pack — structure, insulation, fire safety, drainage — that building control approves and your builder prices from.
Chester has more protected streets than almost anywhere else in the North West, and it is the thing that catches homeowners out. Large parts of the city centre, Handbridge, Curzon Park and Hoole sit within conservation areas, and some streets are covered by Article 4 directions on top. An Article 4 does not ban anything — it removes the right to do specific things without asking, almost always on the elevation facing the street: replacing original windows with uPVC, changing the front door, altering the roof covering, taking down a front boundary wall. Do any of those and you need a full planning application for work that would be completely legal a mile down the road. Listed buildings, of which Chester has hundreds, are stricter again and may need listed building consent on top of planning permission.
Cheshire West and Chester Council holds the definitive boundaries. Mike checks yours before a single line is drawn, because finding out afterwards is what turns a six week job into a six month one.
Mike works to a fixed written fee, agreed before any work begins. Council fees are separate and paid directly by you — never through Mike.
| Item | Cost | Paid to |
|---|---|---|
| Mike’s fee — drawings & application handling | £750 – £1,800 by project | Mike (fixed, written) |
| Householder planning application | £548 | Cheshire West and Chester |
| Prior approval — larger home extension (up to 8m) | £249 | Cheshire West and Chester |
| Lawful Development Certificate (proof for PD work) | £274 | Cheshire West and Chester |
| Planning Portal service charge (Band 2) | £149 inc VAT | Planning Portal |
| Building control (approx.) | £300 – £1,000 by project | Council / inspector |
Council fees are reviewed annually and a further increase is expected before the end of 2026 — Mike confirms the current figure with the council before anything is submitted. Note the £548 English fee is lower than the £585 charged in Wales, and the 8-metre prior approval route at £249 is lower again.
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Mike's fee plus the council fees for planning and building control — the full professional stage, before a builder is involved. Two taps for a figure — no obligation.
Mike's fee covers the complete professional package:
Why the range? Every home is different. The lower end covers a straightforward project — a simple survey, standard drawings, no planning application needed. The higher end covers larger or more complex work — a full planning application, more detailed drawings, or structural design to coordinate.
Before any work begins, Mike gives you a detailed written fee proposal — so you know exactly what you're paying and what it covers. The number you agree is the number you pay.
The visit. Mike comes to your home, assesses your space and your plans, tells you whether you need planning permission, and gives you honest advice on what's possible and what it's likely to cost. The visit fee is £60.
Commission the work and it's free. If you go ahead, the full £60 is deducted from your agreed fee — so the visit effectively costs you nothing.
Work beyond the agreed scope. Anything over and above the written fee proposal — amendments after approval, planning appeals, project management — is charged separately at £60 per hour, always agreed with you first.
What it is. The fee your council charges to process a householder planning application — their planners assess your proposed extension against local and national planning policy before granting permission.
Why it's needed. Larger extensions, or ones outside the Permitted Development rules, legally need planning permission before work starts. Many smaller extensions don't need it at all — Mike will tell you which side you're on at your site visit.
How you pay. Paid directly to your council when the application is submitted — it never passes through Mike. The fee is set nationally: £585 in Wales (Flintshire, Denbighshire and Wrexham) and £548 in Cheshire West & Chester. Mike prepares, submits and handles the whole application as part of his fee. Applications go in online via the Planning Portal, which adds a £149 service charge for a householder application on top of the council fee.
What it is. The Planning Portal is the official national website where planning applications are submitted online to councils across England and Wales — it's how applications reach your council's planning department.
Why the charge. The Planning Portal is the official route applications take to your council, and it charges a service fee on any application whose council fee is over £100. Since 2026 that fee is banded by application type: Band 1 is £99 inc VAT and Band 2 is £149 inc VAT. A householder application to enlarge, improve or alter an existing dwelling — which is what an extension, loft or garage conversion is — sits in Band 2, so £149. It is charged per application submitted, so a project that goes to outline permission first and reserved matters afterwards pays it twice. You can check any application type against the Planning Portal’s published bands.
How you pay. Paid online at the point of submission, together with the council's planning fee. Mike prepares and submits the application through the Portal on your behalf — this charge just doesn't apply at all if your project is Permitted Development, because there's no application to submit.
What it is. Completely separate from planning — building control checks that the construction itself meets the Building Regulations: structure, insulation, fire safety, drainage. An inspector approves the technical drawings and visits the build at key stages.
Why it's needed. It's a legal requirement for extensions and conversions, even when no planning permission is needed. At the end you receive a completion certificate — which you'll need when you come to sell the house.
How you pay. Paid directly to the council's building control team or a private approved inspector — typically a plan charge when the drawings go in and an inspection charge when work starts. Charges vary by council and project size, which is why this line is approximate: Mike obtains an exact quote for you once the design is finalised. Not part of Mike's fee.
Design and approvals only. This is what it costs to get your project drawn and approved — it does not include your builder’s costs for the actual building work.
If your project turns out to be Permitted Development, up to £734 of this comes off — Mike checks for free at your site visit.
Read more about extension plans →
Already built it without approval? Regularisation →
Guide figures only. The £60 site visit is not added to the total — it comes off Mike's fee when you commission the work. Council fees correct at July 2026; building control charges vary by council and project — full details in the FAQs. Mike confirms everything in a written fee proposal before any work begins.
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Every planning application Deeside Architectural Design submits goes onto the council's public register — under the practice name, with the decision attached, permanently. It's free to search and it isn't curated by us. What the register cannot show you is the other half of the work: the projects that qualified as Permitted Development, needed no application at all, and saved the client the council fee. Those leave no public trace. So the number below is the part you can check — not the whole of it. Before you decide whether the fee above is worth paying, go and read it.
Submitted to Flintshire County Council under Deeside Architectural Design since 2010 — every one searchable, with its decision attached.
Many projects qualify as Permitted Development, need no application, and never reach the register. The 165 is the work that required permission — not the count of jobs done.
Deeside Architectural Design Limited, incorporated January 2010, and 25 years of drawings behind it. Companies House no. 07128221.
Open Flintshire's planning register, put Deeside Architectural in the Agent field, and read every decision — including the ones that didn't go our way.
Search Flintshire's planning register →
Figures taken from Flintshire County Council's public planning register, August 2026.
Under Permitted Development in England: a single storey rear extension up to 4 metres on a detached house or 3 metres on a semi or terrace, many loft conversions within volume limits, most garage conversions, and porches under 3m². The conditions are the catch — height, boundaries, materials and previous extensions all count. Conservation areas cut these rights back, and Article 4 directions remove specific ones outright — usually anything visible from the street. A lot of Chester is affected, which is why Mike checks before you commit to anything.
England has a Larger Home Extension prior approval route that Wales does not. It allows a single storey rear extension up to 8 metres on a detached house or 6 metres on a semi or terrace without a full planning application, as long as neighbours are consulted and none objects. It costs £249 rather than the £548 full householder fee. If you live in Chester you can often build considerably further than someone doing the same job in Deeside or Hawarden — and most people are never told.
Often yes, where you otherwise would not. Conservation area status cuts back Permitted Development rights, and an Article 4 direction goes further by removing the right to do specific things without applying — typically anything on the street-facing elevation: original windows swapped for uPVC, a new front door, a changed roof covering, a front boundary wall taken down. It does not stop the work. It means you have to ask. The city centre, Handbridge, Curzon Park and Hoole all contain conservation areas; Cheshire West and Chester holds the definitive boundaries, and Mike checks yours at the survey before any design work starts.
The council aims to determine householder applications within eight weeks of validation. The 8-metre prior approval route runs on a 21 day neighbour consultation and is usually quicker. Mike prepares applications to pass validation first time — resubmissions for missing documents are where months get lost.
Deeside is fifteen minutes from Chester city centre, and Mike works across both systems every week — Cheshire West and Chester on one side of the border, Flintshire and Wrexham on the other. Knowing both is an advantage here, not a compromise: it is exactly why he can tell you the 8-metre route exists when a Welsh-only designer would not think to mention it.
Yes — and anyone who says otherwise either hasn’t submitted many or isn’t being straight with you. Refusals arrive with the council’s reasons attached and most are fixable: a roof line dropped, a window moved, a material changed. Mike talks to the case officer, amends the drawings and resubmits. That back-and-forth is a large part of what you’re paying for. If a proposal is genuinely borderline, he tells you before you spend anything.
Two taps on the estimator gives you a realistic figure. When you're ready, the £60 site visit comes off your fee if you go ahead.
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