Twenty-one metres between back windows
Cheshire East doesn't leave privacy to taste. Its Site Allocations and Development Policies Document, adopted in December 2022, sets out how far apart windows should be in a table of its own. For houses of one or two storeys, main room windows facing each other should be 21 metres apart back to back and 18 metres front to front. A main room window facing a blank or service wall needs 14 metres. Where the ground drops or rises by more than 2 metres between the two buildings, add another 2.5 metres.
Policy HOU 11 covers extensions, and its notes tell officers to read it with those spacing standards. The plan treats the distances as a minimum wherever an existing home is affected. On streets with short back gardens, a first floor bedroom pushed towards the rear fence can fall foul of that before anybody talks about bricks or roof pitch. A kitchen at ground level is usually an easier sell, since its windows look at a fence.
The same policy wants additions that stay "subordinate to the existing dwelling" and suit the street. It also asks for parking to the borough standards, so if the plan builds over a garage or a drive, expect a question about where the cars go.
An old Crewe and Nantwich guide that still counts
Crewe sits in what used to be the Borough of Crewe and Nantwich. One of that council's papers is still on Cheshire East's list of planning guidance, the Extensions and Householder Development document from July 2008. The council says older guides like this apply only in the area of the council that wrote them, and only as far as they agree with newer policy. A planning inspector's decision records Cheshire East using it to judge householder schemes.
So it is the most local guidance a Crewe homeowner has. Ask whoever draws your plans whether they have read it. If they look blank, I'd want to know why before paying for drawings.
Two other checks before anything is drawn. No Article 4 direction takes away extension rights anywhere in the town; the directions around Nantwich Road, Hungerford Road and West Street are about shared houses. Crewe Green is different. As a conservation area it loses permitted development for side additions, rear additions of more than one storey and any new cladding, so those all need a planning application there.
Matching the build to the house
Roughly in the order people in Crewe ask about them. Each type has a longer guide.
Single storey at the back. National rules allow 3 metres on a semi or terrace and 4 on a detached house, at up to 4 metres high. Twice that is possible through prior approval, where Cheshire East writes to the neighbours, gives them 21 days and must decide within 42.
Kitchen. The usual brief on an older terrace or a three bed semi. Put the money into the glazing and the layout rather than chasing the full depth allowed.
Two storey. Permitted development only covers a two storey rear addition that keeps 7 metres from the back boundary and goes no deeper than 3 metres, so most need an application. That is where the 21 metre rule bites.
Side return. Fills the passage beside a terrace's rear wing. Without an application it must be single storey, no more than 4 metres tall and half the original house's width, and in Crewe Green it needs permission whatever its size.
Wrap-around. Counts as both a rear and a side addition, so it nearly always needs planning permission. Expect the 2008 guide and the subordinate test to shape how far it can go.
Open plan. Taking out a back wall needs a steel and an engineer's calculations. Cheshire East's building control team offers next day inspections, so book each stage rather than let the builder cover work up.
Downstairs bedroom. A single storey bedroom and shower room at the side or back keeps a relative at home. Plan level thresholds and a wide door from the start; adding them later costs more than doing it once.
Home office. If you work from home every day, an attached office shares the heating and the broadband, which a cabin at the end of the garden doesn't. A single storey room at the back can often go up without an application.
Planning. Policy HOU 11 and the window spacing table decide most Crewe applications. Outside the settlement boundary, add the open countryside limit described below.
Cost. No Crewe price here. Ground, steelwork and whether you need an application move the figure too much, and three quotes from builders who have seen the house are worth more.
Beyond the town edge, and near the brooks
The Local Plan Strategy keeps four Strategic Green Gaps around Crewe, between the town and Willaston, Wistaston and Nantwich; Rope and Shavington; Basford and Weston; and Haslington. Inside them, open countryside policy applies. For an existing house out there, Policy RUR 11 usually treats growth of more than half the original floorspace as too much. Original means as first built, or as it stood on 1 July 1948 if older, and earlier extensions count against the allowance. Dig out the old plans before you design anything.
Flooding is the other check. Crewe falls inside the Environment Agency's Weaver catchment flood alert area, which takes in the Weaver, the Wheelock and their tributaries, and the agency gauges Valley Brook at Marshfield Bridge near Wistaston. If the flood map puts your house in Flood Zone 2 or 3, the application needs a flood risk assessment. Government 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 these facts come from
- Cheshire East SADPD: Policy HOU 11 Extensions and alterations
- Cheshire East SADPD: Policy HOU 13 Residential standards
- Cheshire East SADPD: Policy RUR 11 Extensions outside settlement boundaries
- Cheshire East Local Plan Strategy: Policy PG 5 Strategic Green Gaps
- Cheshire East: supplementary planning documents
- Cheshire East: householder prior notification
- Cheshire East: building control site inspections
- GOV.UK: Permitted development rights for householders, technical guidance
- GOV.UK: Flood risk assessment standing advice
- Environment Agency: Weaver catchment flood alert area
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Questions people in Crewe ask
We live on a lane just outside Crewe, near Haslington. How big can we go?
If the house is outside the settlement boundary, Cheshire East's Policy RUR 11 applies. In the open countryside it usually treats anything over half as much again as the original floorspace as disproportionate, and earlier extensions are counted. Height and bulk are judged too, so staying under the figure isn't a guarantee.
Does the 21 metre rule apply to a single storey kitchen?
The council's spacing table is measured from windows, so it matters most where new windows face a neighbour's. A ground floor room behind a fence rarely causes a problem. A first floor bedroom facing the house behind is where it usually decides things.
Is there extension guidance written for Crewe?
Yes. The former Crewe and Nantwich council's Extensions and Householder Development guide from July 2008 is still listed by Cheshire East for its old area, alongside the 2022 policies. Newer policy wins where the two disagree.
Our house backs onto Valley Brook. Will that hold things up?
Check the Environment Agency flood map first. If you are in Flood Zone 2 or 3, send a flood risk assessment with the application and design the new floor level to the government's standing advice.
How long does a 6 metre rear extension take to get through?
Through prior approval, Cheshire East consults the neighbours for 21 days and must decide within 42. If it doesn't, the extension is treated as approved. You still need building regulations approval.