Seven metres by three and a half
Stratford-on-Avon District Council has a firm view on what a garage is for. Part O of its Development Requirements SPD, adopted in July 2019, only accepts a garage as a parking space and cycle store if it measures at least 7 metres long and 3.5 metres wide, with a door opening of 2.4 metres or more. If there's somewhere else covered and secure for bikes, 6 metres by 3 metres inside will pass.
The document gives its reason. Garages fill up with storage, the cars end up on the street and the pavement. If your garage is smaller than both sizes, Part O wouldn't count it as a space at all.
Newer houses are different. Where a garage built to those sizes was part of the parking that got a scheme approved, Part O says the council may add a condition stopping its later loss under permitted development. So the age of the house matters. On anything built in the last few years, find the planning consent for the estate and look for a condition that mentions garages or parking.
Matching the job to the house
How each kind of conversion fits Stratford homes. Every one has a fuller guide.
Integral. Built into a newer house, it may be the very space a condition ties to the parking. Rule that out before paying for drawings, then look at the floor, which often sits lower than the hall.
Single. If yours is shorter than 6 metres inside, Part O wouldn't count it as a space. The new wall where the door was may still need its own foundation, so expect the builder to dig and look.
Read our full guide: Single Garage Conversion: What Is Involved and What to Budget For →
Double. A wide double on a detached house can lose one bay and still leave a full-size space under the Part O measurements. Measure between the piers too, because the council's width for one space is 3.15 metres there.
Bedroom. Close to the Avon or Shottery Brook, look at flood risk before anyone moves a bed downstairs. Building control will want the room insulated, ventilated and safe to get out of in a fire, like any other bedroom.
Home office. A sensible use for a front garage, and the district design guide likes habitable rooms with windows overlooking the street. A desk by the new window does exactly that.
Utility or playroom. Part O wants about 3 square metres of household and garden storage where a garage counts as parking. Moving that clutter into a utility at the back of the garage keeps it off the hall.
Gym or studio. Fine on a detached house with its own drive. On a linked or semi-detached pair, think about the neighbour's side of the wall before you bolt a rack to it or bring in a drum kit.
Detached. An office or gym used with the house is one thing. A self-contained home is another matter. The Planning Portal warns that one can need consent however little you build, and whoever ends up living there.
Planning and building control. Work kept inside the existing walls doesn't usually need planning permission, though a condition, a listing or a conservation area can change that. Turning the space into a habitable room will normally need building regulations approval.
Cost. We don't put a Stratford price on it. A missing footing at the door, a sunken slab and a listed or conservation area frontage all move quotes, so ask three firms to look at yours.
A window where the door was
This is the change people walk past every day, so draw it carefully. Part E of the same SPD (April 2019) gives the council's window rules, and they translate well to a garage front. Line the new opening up under the window above. Give it a visible lintel. Set the frame back from the brick face so it casts a shadow line, use flush casements rather than chunky storm-proof ones, and leave out projecting cills.
Use brick that matches the house for the panel below. On the inter-war roads, where the ground floor is brick and the first floor is rendered, keep the infill in brick so the old pattern holds.
The town centre and Shottery conservation areas need more care. The Planning Portal advises talking to the council first in a conservation area, and the 2005 design studies of the town's roads singled out lost wooden windows and front gardens given over to cars as the changes eroding their character. Ask whether an Article 4 direction covers your street, and if the house is listed, assume consent is needed for the alteration.
Parking in the centre, and the sign-off
Part O splits the district in two. In Zone A, Stratford-upon-Avon town centre, it asks for one allocated space for a home of any size. Everywhere else it rises to two for a two or three-bedroom house and three for four bedrooms or more. Those numbers only bite if your conversion needs an application.
If the car is heading for the front garden, the same document isn't keen. It says parking in front of houses can be overdominant, prefers spaces beside the house and behind the building line, and wants visible drives in permeable surfacing. A slot at least 3 metres by 6 is its usable size.
The district's 2022 flood study puts low-lying parts of the centre and homes near the Avon and Shottery Brook at most risk, so a ground-floor bedroom there deserves a look at the flood map first. Look up your postcode on the UKradon map as well, since the result can decide whether the new floor needs radon protection.
Building control is the council's own LABC team, based in Stratford. You can use them or a private building control approver, and either way the completion certificate is the paper a buyer's solicitor will ask to see.
Where these facts come from
- Development Requirements SPD Part O: Parking and Travel (July 2019)
- Development Requirements SPD: adoption dates
- Development Requirements SPD Part D: Buildings and Layout
- Development Requirements SPD Part E: construction and materials
- Stratford-upon-Avon: Design in Residential Areas (2005)
- Stratford-on-Avon District Council: conservation areas
- Stratford-on-Avon District Council: building control
- Stratford-on-Avon Level 1 Strategic Flood Risk Assessment (2022)
- Planning Portal: garage conversion planning permission
- Planning Portal: building regulations for a garage conversion
- UKradon: radon maps
- Warwickshire County Council: vehicle access crossing application
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Questions people in Stratford-upon-Avon ask
Our garage is under 6 metres long inside. Does the council treat it as a parking space?
Not under Part O. Its smallest accepted garage is 6 metres by 3 metres internally, and that only where bikes are stored elsewhere. A shorter garage was not counted, though any planning condition on the house still applies, so check the consent.
We live in the middle of town. How many spaces will the planners expect if we need permission?
In the town centre zone Part O asks for one allocated space whatever the number of bedrooms. The zone boundary is drawn on a map in the document, so ask the planners to confirm which side your street falls.
Our 1930s semi on Shipston Road has a small garage at the side. Will a window on the front go down badly?
Not if it looks like it belongs. Match the brick of the ground floor, line the window up with the one above, set the frame back and skip the projecting cill. Those points come straight from the council's design guide.
Who do we ask about a dropped kerb for parking on the front?
Warwickshire County Council's highways team, not the district council. Check Part O's view on front gardens first.