Permission to demolish a conservatory?

[bungeejumper]

A friend wants to demolish a timber and glass conservatory on a house that he bought last year. It's about 3 metres square, polycarbonate roof, no brickwork, and faces the back garden rather than the front. Oh, and it's an eyesore. Do you reckon he'll need planning permission?

BJ

[Raptor]

I believe planning permission or building consent is only needed if you "Replace it".

Raptor.

[bungeejumper]

Thanks Raptor, I think you're probably right there. If it had been a decorative wing of some elegant country house.... but in this case, definitely not.

I have a distant memory that George Osborne waived planning consent for new building extensions of up to 20% (???) of a house's floor area, but the rules do change, hence my query. The last time I had this sort of question was thirty years ago, when I was ripping down a plastic lean-to thing and replacing it with a timber and glass conservatory of similar size. It was in a conservation area, so I phoned the planning officer, and basically he said "if you're replacing plastic with glass I'm not going to stand in your way. Just do it."

Those were the days.

BJ