No local rulebook for back additions
Some councils publish a householder guide with depths in metres and a 45 degree line drawn on a diagram. Chesterfield doesn't. Its residential design guide, Successful Places, came out in 2013 jointly with Bolsover, North East Derbyshire and Bassetlaw, and it was written mainly for new housing layouts.
When an extension does go to the planners, officers weigh it against two Local Plan policies. CLP14 expects "an acceptable impact on the amenity of users and neighbours". CLP20 asks new work to respect the character of the area around it. Lost light and overlooking are judged case by case, with the amenity chapter of Successful Places in the background.
For most owners that matters less than it sounds, because most single storey rear additions here never need an application. The national permitted development limits do the work. Outside a conservation area you can usually go 3 metres back from the original rear wall of a semi or terrace, or 4 metres on a detached house.
Want an officer's view before drawing anything? The council will give one, but for a fee. Householders get a written reply rather than a meeting, and the request isn't logged until the money has been taken by phone.
Choosing a type for a Chesterfield house
Ordered by how often each one suits the borough's housing. Every entry links to a longer guide.
Single storey at the back. The default choice on a semi, and 44.9% of Chesterfield households lived in one at the 2021 Census. Beyond 3 metres you can go to 6 through prior approval, where the council writes to your neighbours and has 42 days to respond.
Kitchen. On a three bed semi the kitchen is usually the room that's grown out of. Place the rooflights and glazing so they don't look straight into the garden next door, because overlooking is what CLP14 objections tend to be about.
Wrap-around. Good on a semi with a driveway down the side. Because part of it is a side extension, it needs planning permission in all 12 conservation areas.
Two storey. Permitted development only covers it if it stays 7 metres from the back boundary and 3 metres deep, which rules out most terraced plots. Expect an application judged on CLP20, so match the brick and the roof pitch.
Side return. Fits a Victorian terrace with a narrow yard beside the back wing, like many along Chatsworth Road. That road is a conservation area, so there a side infill isn't permitted development and needs an application.
Open plan. Taking out the old back wall means a steel beam and calculations from an engineer. On a non-traditional council-built house, have the engineer check what the existing wall is made of before anyone prices the opening.
Downstairs bedroom. Often the answer for an older owner who wants to stay put. Keep the floor level with the house, and if the plot is in a flood zone, talk to the designer about floor levels before the plans are fixed.
Home office. Attached means one set of foundations and one mining check, with heating run off the house boiler. A separate cabin at the bottom of a sloping garden can cost more in groundwork than it saves.
Planning. Building control here is the Derbyshire Building Control Partnership, separate from planning at the Town Hall. If you build under permitted development, a lawful development certificate gives a future buyer proof.
Cost. We don't publish Chesterfield prices. Foundations are the unknown on Coal Measures ground, so get the mining search and any trial holes done before you compare quotes.
Where the Hipper and the Rother come up
Water is the first thing to check on a Chesterfield plot near a river. The borough's strategic flood risk assessment, shared with Bolsover and North East Derbyshire, puts the area where the Holme Brook joins the Hipper in Flood Zone 3. That takes in Factory Street to Boythorpe Road, Wheatbridge Road and Dock Walk, which flooded in 2000 and again in 2007.
It names others too. Houses on Ashgate Road and Ashgate Valley Road, Yew Tree Drive up the Hipper, and Bridge Street, Hawthorne Street and Sherwood Street by the Rother. Tapton Terrace and Wain Avenue to the east. Station Road in Whittington, where the Riddings Brook runs through culverts. The same report says plenty of local flooding comes from culverts too small for the water.
Where the government flood map shows your plot in Flood Zone 2 or 3, a planning application needs a flood risk assessment. For a householder extension the Environment Agency's standing advice for minor extensions covers it, and the council can refuse an application that arrives without one.
Below the footings and beyond the town edge
Unlike a loft, an extension means digging. If your home is in a development high risk area on the Mining Remediation Authority's free map, you must check the mining risk, and you need its permit before digging foundations or new drains that could hit old workings or a mine entry. The authority doesn't approve the extension itself. Chesterfield planners attach a coal mining note to permissions in these areas, and it says to keep clear of mine entries and to send the mining details in with the Building Regulations application.
The Green Belt wraps round the north, west and south west of the borough. The council sets no percentage cap. National policy allows an extension there only if it isn't a disproportionate addition to the original building, so anything already added counts against you.
Then Abercrombie Street. Its 2009 Article 4 direction takes away the right to enlarge named houses there and on parts of Newbold Road, Sheffield Road and Victoria Street, so even a modest back kitchen needs an application. It's the only direction in the borough we found that removes that right.
Where these facts come from
- GOV.UK: Permitted development rights for householders, technical guidance
- Chesterfield Borough Council: applying for planning permission
- Chesterfield Borough Council: pre-application planning advice
- Chesterfield Borough Council: Successful Places residential design SPD
- Chesterfield Borough Local Plan 2018-2035
- Article 4 direction: Abercrombie Street
- Chesterfield, Bolsover and North East Derbyshire SFRA: flooding in Chesterfield
- Environment Agency: flood risk standing advice
- GOV.UK: home extensions in former coal mining areas
- NPPF: protecting Green Belt land
- Derbyshire Observatory: Census 2021 profile for Chesterfield
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Questions people in Chesterfield ask
My house is near the Hipper off Wheatbridge Road. Can I still extend?
Usually, yes, but check the flood map for planning first. Parts of that area are Flood Zone 3. If you need planning permission there, include a flood risk assessment based on the Environment Agency's minor extensions advice, or the application may be refused.
Does Chesterfield council have a 45 degree rule for extensions?
Not in a published householder guide that we could find. Officers judge loss of light and privacy under Local Plan policy CLP14, with the 2013 Successful Places guide in the background. If you build within permitted development, no local test applies.
I live on Abercrombie Street. Can I add a single storey kitchen without permission?
Probably not. The 2009 Article 4 direction removes the extension right for the named houses on Abercrombie Street, Newbold Road, Sheffield Road and Victoria Street. Check whether yours is listed in the direction, then apply.
Who do I call if the builder finds an old shaft while digging footings?
Ring the Mining Remediation Authority's 24-hour hazard line. Stop work near it. Then tell your building control inspector, who will need to see the revised foundation design.