please empty your brain below
Luckily, if a developer has missed this out, they’ve usually done several other things planners don’t like (undersized rooms, poor design, too many units to a lift core etc) - which makes refusing an application easier!
Sadly this excludes those horrid “permitted development” office to residential conversions - where room space standards and the private amenity standards etc don’t apply... the slum buildings of the future, in my eyes.
dg writes: See guidance.
For a historical view may I refer your readers to
wikipedia.org/Parker_Morris_Committee
More lessons to come after Grenfell Fire?
'Something bolted on' is often literally the case. Today's more stringent energy standards mean that there needs to be thermal separation between the balcony structure and the interior floor or walls. This usually takes the form of specially designed stainless steel connectors, often not much thicker than dowel bars, to which the external structure is bolted on.
The main flaw in the system I have noticed is that some balconies are not finished in a way that would save someone downstairs from a spillage upstairs, but those illustrated here look ok.
Regards
1. Nice to see SOMETHING Boris did that SEEMS to be beneficial for ordinary people.
2. Just goes to show how EASY it would be for housing standards to be raised if this were really wanted .....
At the risk of appearing stalker-ish, I wondered whether dg has a balcony. An inadequate level of research reveals that the answer is yes - large enough to grow roses and / or geraniums on, and to smell wafting smoke from neighbours.
I wouldn't be bold enough to hope for a guided tour in a future post, of course.
Several floors of a new build in Deptford were destroyed the other week by a cretin who thought it was a good idea to have a barbie.
If the lighting of BBQs/fire-bowls on balconies isn't prohibited, I'll be astounded. Of course that doesn't stop some people...!
I live in a Victorian 'byelaw terrace'
[wikipedia.org/Byelaw_terraced_house]
(as I did down south, had I but known) and it's interesting to see how the 1875 Act was interpreted into different rules in different areas, just as the balcony requirements are interpreted differently by developers today.
I agree that the balcony has definitely made the lockdown a lot more bearable, whether you use it or not - it's just nice to have that extra space.
One thing I don't like is the fact that it's not weather proof - when it rains it's just as hard inside the balcony. I didn't think it was allowed to build them like these, but here you go.
Unfortunately I can't go out there as much as I would like, or even just open the door to get some fresh air, as the neighbour is a heavy smoker! :(
When we were getting our daughter's flat ready for her, 21 years ago, I insisted that she needed some space outside to call her own. Planning permission was dicey because a balcony would overlook other gardens, but it was allowed, luckily. Present tenants have been immensely glad of the balcony, in the recent circumstances.
I started noticing this years ago, and then remarked how seldom you saw anybody on them. Then I twigged that the balconies were almost always on the outside, i e looking at the street.
My take on it is this:
Mmm, new flat... new lifestyle... get healthier... buy a bike... exercise more, cycle to work, sunbathe, eat al fresco, etc.
Then reality kicks in. You're in, for instance, a flat on Parnell Road or Tredegar Road. From about, say, five in the morning to ten at night, you have heavy traffic going to and fro the A12. The noise and the chemical pollution are such as to make your balcony untenable. Even with door shut, the noise is nerve-wracking. Cycling in inner London you find dangerously frightening, and you soon get fed up up with hoicking the bike up and down stairs.
Have a look at these flats of recent years as you pass. How many do you ever see used by people, apart from for storage of rsusting Bikes?
As someone who worked with his administration on a sectoral strategy and its implementation for 4 years, he demonstrated next to no interest in the detail of these things. From my experience, all of the vision and thinking came from the GLA officers and external stakeholders, such as the sector experts in boroughs and other bodies. Occasionally there was direction and input from the deputy mayors he appointed. But frankly most of the detail of what went through in the first and the bulk of the second term was carry on from Livingstone's administration.
Until suppliers can design, test and manufacture a suitable alternative, expect to see a lot more metal balcony balustrades on future residential developments.
TridentScan | Privacy Policy