Three metres into a terraced back yard
Most extension enquiries in Barrow start behind a terrace. About half the town's houses are terraced, and the old council described the Victorian rows as deep houses on tight plots. So the usual question isn't how big. It's how much of the yard you can give up and still have somewhere for the bins.
Under national permitted development, a terraced or semi-detached house can go out 3 metres from the original back wall at a single storey, 4 metres for a detached house, with a 4 metre height limit. Within 2 metres of a boundary the eaves stop at 3 metres. A prior approval route lets you go to 6 metres (8 for detached), provided the council has 42 days to hear from the neighbours first. Anything already built onto the back counts towards those figures, and on a terrace the original rear wall is often the end of the outrigger, not the main house.
Barrow has no Article 4 direction that touches extensions. The only one the old borough made covers frontages in Dalton's Market Place. Conservation areas are a different story, and we come to them below.
How the council judges an application
There's no separate householder design guide for Barrow. Officers work from the Barrow Borough Local Plan, adopted in 2019 and still used by Westmorland and Furness Council for the old borough. Four of its policies do most of the work.
Policy H16 refuses an extension that takes undue light from next door or feels overbearing, and points to the BRE light standards. Officers have tested schemes with a 45 degree line from the neighbour's nearest window, horizontally and vertically. Policy H17 asks for 21 metres between facing windows of habitable rooms where distance alone provides the privacy, which rules out a lot of first floor glazing facing across a back street.
Policy H18 lets side extensions through, one storey or two, if they don't create a terracing effect that would harm the street if every house copied it. Policy H20 wants the roof to match the house in pitch and material, with the ridge set below the original. Flat roofs can be fine at the back but are resisted on the side or front.
Matching the build to the house
Single storey rear. The default for a Barrow terrace. Keep it to 3 metres and under the height limits and you won't need an application, though you'll still need building regulations approval.
Side return. Where a terrace has a back offshoot, the strip of yard beside it is the obvious space to fill. The 45 degree test against the neighbour's back window decides how tall the boundary wall can be.
Kitchen. Most yard extensions here become kitchens. A pitched roof with rooflights keeps H20 happy and gets daylight into the middle room, which a deep plan house needs.
Open plan. Opening the back room into the new kitchen means steel through a load-bearing wall, and on a terrace that wall is often shared. Serve party wall notice before the steels go in.
Wrap-around. Filling the side strip and going past the end of the offshoot in one go. It falls outside permitted development, so plan on an application and both neighbours being measured against H16.
Two storey. Better suited to the semis and detached houses with wider plots. Over a side driveway, H18 is the policy to design around, and a dropped ridge line helps.
Ground floor bedroom. A bedroom and shower room off the hall lets an older relative keep living in a two storey terrace without the stairs. Allow room for a wheelchair turning circle from the start.
Home office. A terraced yard rarely has room for a garden building as well as an extension. Put the desk in the extension.
Planning. Check whether you are in one of the eight conservation areas in Barrow and on Walney before anything else. If you think you are inside permitted development, a lawful development certificate settles it.
Cost. We don't quote Barrow figures. A flood assessment on Walney, or flood resistant construction, adds to a budget, so ask each builder what they've allowed for.
Walney, the docks and the tide
The Environment Agency runs coastal flood warnings for Vickerstown and Biggar on Walney, for Rampside and Roa Island, and for the land around the Cavendish and Ramsden Docks. The Local Plan puts Walney at the front of the borough's coastal flood risk and flags surface water problems in Salthouse.
If your house is in Flood Zone 2 or 3, an extension application needs a flood risk assessment. The national standing advice asks for the new floor at least 600mm above the estimated flood level, or 300mm where that level is known with confidence. Where that can't be done, the walls and doors need flood resistance to the same height. Look up your address on the flood map for planning first.
In the conservation areas, permitted development drops away for side extensions, cladding, and anything over one storey at the back. The 2026 appraisal for Central Barrow adds that uPVC isn't acceptable there and that swapping old brick yard walls for block and render has harmed the terraced streets. Build in brick that matches.
Where these facts come from
- GOV.UK: Permitted development rights for householders, technical guidance
- Barrow Borough Local Plan 2016 to 2031
- Westmorland and Furness Council: planning committee booklet quoting policies H16 to H20 (May 2023)
- Westmorland and Furness Council: Barrow Borough Local Plan documents
- Barrow Borough Council: Article 4 directions
- Central Barrow Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plan 2026
- Environment Agency: Biggar, Rampside and Vickerstown flood warning area
- Environment Agency: Walney, Cavendish and Ramsden Docks flood warning area
- GOV.UK: Flood risk assessment standing advice
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Questions people in Barrow-in-Furness ask
My terrace on Walney is in Vickerstown. Can I still build out the back without applying?
Probably, for a single storey. Conservation area status stops side extensions, cladding and rear extensions over one storey, but a single storey rear addition within 3 metres can still be permitted development. The larger 6 metre prior approval route isn't available in a conservation area. Check the flood map too.
Can I put a balcony or bedroom window on a first floor extension facing the house behind across the back street?
Unlikely. Policy H17 asks for 21 metres between facing windows of habitable rooms where distance is the only privacy, so measure to the windows opposite before you design. Obscure glazing or rooflights are the usual way round it.
Will the council accept a flat roof on my extension?
At the back, often yes, if it doesn't harm the neighbours or show from the street. Policy H20 resists flat roofs on the side or front of a house or anywhere prominent, and wants pitched roofs to match the house.
Does Barrow have any Article 4 direction that stops extensions?
No. The one Article 4 direction the old borough made covers frontage alterations in Dalton's Market Place conservation area.