Converting allocated parking to a garden.

Misthios

Hello everyone, any good advice in this matter would be greatly appreciated it. As you can see at the attached photos, I am after an end of terraced house which at the back it has a small enclosed patio area. The estate agent informs me that just in front of the fence/gate I am entitled to 2 allocated parking spaces, they are in the deed and freehold. I was thinking to move the fence forward and convert one allocated space to garden. I would keep it with low fence so it doesn't affect the visibility of the other neighbours who park their cars next to me. I would probably use artificial lawn and shrubs/flowers in pots so in case I would sell the house to remove everything and preventing of devaluating the property. The house is 2 bedroom and I have 1 car. There's also off street parking at the front of the property. Can you please advise me if I still need to check things with the council of the planning? Many Thanks in advance.

Misthios

PS correction - Please advise me if I still need to check with the council or/and with the planning. What do you think about this idea overall? Many Thanks.

user1977

What do the titles say? If people are describing the land as an allocated parking space, that may be all you can do with it.

The planners might not be happy with off-road parking spaces being lost.

Misthios

Hi, thank you for replying. If I understood correctly, I need to check in the deed if this part is described as land or parking? This is the key information I am looking at? Which means that if it's described as land, I still got chances to go ahead with it?

RAS

I'd suggest that you try and find the original planning permission and check what was there, and look at your local planning guidelines, which might require 2 carparking spaces per house.

However if you are not parking a car on top there all the time. are several ways to make the space attractive. Start with Front gardens: plants, designs and car parking / RHS Gardening

I saw a lovely one which was actually a world map planted with thymes and other creeping plants in gravel where there was space for the cars to drive safely between the planted areas. Obviously the plants got their sunshine fix when the cars weren't parked. So you might want to alternate which side of the space you parked on.

And you could incorporate some taller plants around the edges and a bin store with a planted roof?

Edit: And maybe move that little shed closer to the house if the area is is sitting in is the sunnier end of the patio?

Section62

Misthios said:

Hi, thank you for replying. If I understood correctly, I need to check in the deed if this part is described as land or parking? This is the key information I am looking at? Which means that if it's described as land, I still got chances to go ahead with it?

You need to check to see if the property still has full permitted development rights, and whether there are any planning conditions requiring the parking spaces to be retained as parking.

I'd expect there to be a very good chance the planning consent for the property effectively requires the continued provision of two off-street parking spaces.

Don't assume you will be able to reduce your own allocated parking to one space and park on the road/elsewhere instead.  Not only could that be restricted by covenants or land ownership, it could result in you having a very poor relationship with your neighbours.

"Allocated" is usually used to describe parking owned by someone else which a house/flat owner has some entitlement to use.  If this land is in fact part of the property it would be odd to call it "allocated".  You will probably want to clarify the ownership status with the estate agent (again).

km1500

if unsure you could always make a garden but not move the fence and see if any problems arise. Move the fence a couple of years down the line.

Misthios

RAS said:

I'd suggest that you try and find the original planning permission and check what was there, and look at your local planning guidelines, which might require 2 carparking spaces per house.

However if you are not parking a car on top there all the time. are several ways to make the space attractive. Start with Front gardens: plants, designs and car parking / RHS Gardening

I saw a lovely one which was actually a world map planted with thymes and other creeping plants in gravel where there was space for the cars to drive safely between the planted areas. Obviously the plants got their sunshine fix when the cars weren't parked. So you might want to alternate which side of the space you parked on.

And you could incorporate some taller plants around the edges and a bin store with a planted roof?

Edit: And maybe move that little shed closer to the house if the area is is sitting in is the sunnier end of the patio?

Thank you so much, I appreciate it. Very useful article to make the driveway attractive although my intention is to expand my space and privacy.... But certainly it's useful if my main plan, can't go ahead. 

TripleH

At Deansgate Tram Stop in Manchester they have planted low growing trays of what look like Alpine plants (I know nothing about gardening or plants). The trams pass over them but there is greenery.

Obviously more thought as to what you can do is needed. There are hexagonal plastic grids you can bury to give traction for vehicles but also have plants growing (neither suggestion is probably money saving though 😞

Misthios

Section62 said:

Misthios said:

Hi, thank you for replying. If I understood correctly, I need to check in the deed if this part is described as land or parking? This is the key information I am looking at? Which means that if it's described as land, I still got chances to go ahead with it?

You need to check to see if the property still has full permitted development rights, and whether there are any planning conditions requiring the parking spaces to be retained as parking.

I'd expect there to be a very good chance the planning consent for the property effectively requires the continued provision of two off-street parking spaces.

Don't assume you will be able to reduce your own allocated parking to one space and park on the road/elsewhere instead.  Not only could that be restricted by covenants or land ownership, it could result in you having a very poor relationship with your neighbours.

"Allocated" is usually used to describe parking owned by someone else which a house/flat owner has some entitlement to use.  If this land is in fact part of the property it would be odd to call it "allocated".  You will probably want to clarify the ownership status with the estate agent (again).

That's very helpful, thank you so much. It's very interesting though the information in regards to allocated park space. Almost every single house I have viewed so far, in the description it bring the reference ''allocated parking'' but certainly I will check it. My thoughts were that since I have 2 parking spaces (if that's correct/ I ll double check it), I would park there and next to it would be the part converted to garden. So the converted/secluded area would between the green bush and my car. 

RAS

Have you downloaded the deeds and checked any covenants etc? If they cover parking, you'd only need one neighbour to complain or another to check whether they can do the same thing and the council could start enforcement action. It doesn't matter if you've only got one car and there is on-street parking at the front. They'd be looking at the impact of visitors parking on-street rather than in allocated parking, on a wider scale.

There was a recent thread here where the widow owning a house refused to replace a boundary wall with one meeting the planning requirements/covenants despite her husband having already been fined. It took the potential purchaser a lot of work (and advice) to find a way forward that allowed him to buy the place without being fined as well. Despite the fact that he wanted to alter the offending wall to meet the covenant it almost scuppered the deal.