Six metres by three
The design guide Blackpool shares with Fylde and Wyre, Extending Your Home, says a new garage needs an internal size of at least 6 metres by 3 to be counted as a parking space. When that figure was questioned at the Local Plan hearings in 2021, the council defended it. A car, it said, is about 4.4 metres by 1.8, and you need room to open the doors.
The same statement admitted that even fairly recent estates have garages too small to park in, and that the council frequently gets applications to remove planning conditions on garages. If your estate permission tied the garage to parking, you won't be the first to ask.
Where no condition applies, a conversion done inside the existing walls is normally permitted development. Look up your estate's original approval on the council's planning register and read the conditions at the end. Newer developments are where the Portal says to look hardest.
Then measure the drive. The shared guide asks for a space of 2.5 by 5 metres, or 5.5 metres long in front of a garage. A drive that leaves the car's nose over the pavement is what worries a planning officer.
Raikes Hall and the front of the house
Raikes Hall's controls reach right out to the pavement. Its Article 4 direction, in force since 1 June 2020, takes away householder rights for alterations to the house, hard surfaces in the garden, gates and walls, new accesses onto the road, and even wall-mounted car charging points. Nothing in the wording limits it to the front. So swapping a garage door for brick and a window there needs permission. So does paving the front for the car you have just evicted.
Round Stanley Park the council's 2017 management plan says front gardens and low walls should be kept wherever possible, and its appraisal records driveway widening on all four Park Drives. In Layton the appraisal notes many front gardens are too small for off-street parking at all. There, losing the garage can mean losing your only parking.
Which garage, and what it becomes
Most of inner Blackpool is terraces and flats with no garage to convert. The garages tend to sit beside interwar and later semis, such as the mid-1930s pairs on Plymouth Road in Layton with drives down to their original garages, or the attached garages on the west side of Westcliffe Drive.
Single garage. The usual Blackpool job, next to a semi. Measure it against the 6 by 3 metre test first. If it falls short, the council's own guide would not count it as a parking space, a fair point if a condition is in the way.
Read our full guide: Single Garage Conversion: What Is Involved and What to Budget For →
Integral garage. Built into the house, so heating and power are a short run away. Read the estate's decision notice before you buy materials.
Home office. A front room with its own door suits anyone who sees clients. Put the data cable in before the plasterboard.
Bedroom. To pass as a bedroom it needs daylight and air, over a warm, dry floor. In the Marton Moss flood pocket, a downstairs bedroom is the worst room to flood.
Utility or playroom. Leaving the garage door in place and fitting out the rear as a utility keeps the frontage as it was, which matters in Raikes Hall.
Double garage. Found with later detached houses, like the late 20th century group at Melrose Court in Layton. Park in one bay and convert the other, and the parking question answers itself.
Gym or studio. On a linked or semi-detached house the garage often adjoins the neighbour's, so soundproof that wall first.
Detached garage. A workshop or hobby room used with the house is one thing. Turning it into a self-contained annexe or flat is a material change of use, and the Planning Portal says that needs planning permission.
Planning and building control. Planning depends on your estate's conditions and whether you are in Raikes Hall or Stanley Park. Turning any part of it into a habitable room brings in Building Regulations as well.
Cost and value. We don't print figures. The floor and the new wall where the door was move the price most, so compare three quotes against the same plan.
Under the old garage floor
Blackpool Council runs its own building control team. Much of what they check is underfoot, because a garage slab sits low and cold. The new wall in the old door opening may need a foundation of its own, since a garage door never carried brickwork.
Blackpool sits on glacial till, with blown sand and buried peat in places, so have the builder dig and look before deciding what that wall stands on. Radon is worth a quick look too. Check your address on the UKradon map, because a new habitable room in a raised area may need protection in the floor.
The pocket of Marton Moss between Progress Way, School Road and Midgeland Road sits in Flood Zones 2 and 3. For vulnerable uses where the floor can't be raised, Environment Agency advice is to consider moving them upstairs, which argues for a study rather than a bedroom in a garage there.
Where these facts come from
- Blackpool Council: Statement for Matter 5, Local Plan Part 2 examination (2021)
- Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre: Extending Your Home SPD (2007)
- Blackpool Council: Raikes Hall Article 4 direction
- Blackpool Council: Stanley Park conservation area management plan
- Blackpool Council: Stanley Park conservation area appraisal
- Blackpool Council: Layton conservation area appraisal
- Blackpool Council: heritage characterisation studies
- Planning Portal: garage conversion planning permission
- Planning Portal: building regulations for a garage conversion
- Planning Portal: converting a detached garage into self-contained living space
- Environment Agency: flood risk assessment standing advice
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Questions people in Blackpool ask
My garage is too narrow to open the car door. Do the planners still treat it as a parking space?
The council's own design guide only counts a garage of at least 6 by 3 metres inside, and it has said many estate garages fall short. But a condition on your permission still applies until it is removed, so check the decision notice and ask the council about removing it.
We're in Raikes Hall. Can we brick up the garage door and pave the front for the car?
Both need planning permission. The Article 4 direction covers alterations to the house, paving the front and new accesses. Talk to the conservation team before you draw anything.
Can I fit a car charger on the drive once the garage has gone?
In Raikes Hall the direction covers wall-mounted charging points and charging posts, so you'll need permission there. Outside Raikes Hall, check with the council before you book the electrician.
Could my mum live in our converted detached garage?
Only with planning permission if it becomes a self-contained home. A home that runs separately from the house, with its own kitchen and front door, is a new use in planning terms.