Commercial · Derby
If you have a building that no longer suits the use it was built for, or you are thinking of buying one to give it a new purpose, the first question is usually which consent you need. The answer shapes everything that follows, and we can often give it to you quickly.
Where your building is listed, sits in a conservation area, or falls within the World Heritage Site, our planners and heritage specialists look at it together, so the new use suits the building as well as your plans.
Managing Director – Chartered Town Planner
How we can help
If your building is listed or your plans are ambitious, you may need more than one of these at once. We will help you see which apply to yours and the order in which to tackle them.
We establish which consent your change of use needs and prepare the application, whether you are turning a shop into homes, an office into a clinic or a workshop into a leisure space. You will know from the outset what the Council will be looking for.
Class MA allows some commercial buildings to become homes through prior approval rather than a full application, provided they meet its conditions. We check whether your building qualifies before you spend anything on the conversion.
We design and plan conversions together, so your building can work well in a role it was not built for, including listed and historic buildings. Our heritage specialists help you keep what makes it special as it takes on its new life.
We help with new commercial and mixed-use schemes, extensions to existing premises and employment land. You will have planners and architects working on your scheme together, from the first appraisal to the decision.
How we work with you
Your first question is usually whether you need permission at all, and we can often answer it quickly. Here’s what’s typically involved from there.
Step 1
We establish the building's current lawful use and the use you would like, which tells you whether you need full permission, prior approval or neither.
Step 2
We look at any listing, conservation area, World Heritage Site or flood risk, and at access and parking, to see what the building can realistically take.
Step 3
We develop the design with the planning position in mind, taking particular care where a listing limits what can be altered.
Step 4
We submit the application with the supporting statements it needs, including a heritage assessment where your building calls for one.
Step 5
We stay with your application until it is decided and help you discharge the conditions that follow, which on a conversion can be a sizeable task in its own right.
Local context
If your building has outlived its original use, it may still have a good future as something else. In Derby city centre, we secured planning permission and listed building consent to convert a vacant Grade II listed former post office and nightclub into offices and a cafe, and the conversion at CUBO Derby has been completed. A listed building brings its own tests, and the new use has to suit the building as well as the market, which is where we would start with yours.
Not every change of use involves a historic building. At North Riverside in the city centre, our scheme for a coach and car park, with electric vehicle charging and a welfare building for drivers, was granted planning permission. Proposals like that are judged on how they will work day to day, from access and layout to their effect on the streets around them, and yours is likely to be asked the same questions.
Our heritage work supported an approved listed building conversion in the Ockbrook conservation area, five miles east of Derby. At Morley Hayes, five miles north-east, we handled the planning for a hotel expansion that was approved in the Green Belt. At Hazelwood, six miles to the north, we worked on an approved commercial development for Lubrizol. Erewash and Amber Valley decided those three rather than Derby City Council, and if your building sits just outside the city, we will prepare your application for the council that will decide it.
Your building may be a listed landmark, a tired office or an industrial unit. Whichever it is, we will help you establish which consent you need and what the new use will ask of it before you commit to a purchase or a lease.
Whether your change needs full planning permission, prior approval or no application at all depends on the building's lawful use and the use you have in mind. We establish that first, so you know which route you are on before you commit to a purchase or a design.
If your building is listed, works that affect its character will need listed building consent in addition to any planning permission, and in a conservation area the materials and detail of external changes are looked at closely. We make the case for the new use and the physical changes together, so both respect what makes your building special.
If your building is within the World Heritage Site or close to it, your proposal will be considered for how it affects the site's significance and setting. We look at that at the outset and explain what it means for the design and for the evidence your application will need.
Some city centre and riverside sites fall within flood zones, which can affect whether a use is acceptable, particularly on the ground floor. We check the flood position at the start, so the use you propose suits the site rather than having to change later.
RIBA
RTPI
IHBC
ARB
Recent work
Buildings and business sites in and around Derby that we have taken through planning, from the Old Post Office in the city centre to the hotel at Morley Hayes.
Derby
The redevelopment of the Old Post Office will allow the refurbishment of the upper floors, facilitating the restoration of historical
Strutts Park Conservation Area and Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site
Planning Design worked with Derby based house builders Meadowview Homes to prepare a sensitive redevelopment scheme for Oaklands, a large
Derby City Centre
Planning & Design Practice have secured planning permission for a Coach and Car Park in the North Riverside area of
Ockbrook
The Ockbrook Moravian Settlement is an interesting historical site in Derbyshire, and we are pleased to have successfully achieved Listed
PDP has provided planning consultancy services for a number of projects at Morley Hayes working alongside local architectural practices Morrison
Hazelwood, Derbyshire
PDP worked with Morrison Design Ltd to secure planning permission for a large local Derbyshire employer, Lubrizol
Common questions
That turns on the building’s lawful use and the one you have in mind. Some changes need no application, some need prior approval and others need full planning permission, and works to a listed building need their own consent. If you tell us about the building and your plans, we will explain which route you are on.
Class MA can allow an office, shop or other commercial building to become homes through prior approval, provided the building meets the conditions attached to it. The conditions are detailed and not every building qualifies, so it is worth confirming eligibility before you commit to a purchase. If yours does not, a full planning application may still be possible, and we can advise you on that too.
A listed building can often be given a new use, and a conversion that helps to secure its future tends to be looked on favourably. You will need listed building consent alongside planning permission, judged on the effect on the building’s special interest, so the case needs to be made with care. We have taken listed buildings in and around Derby through that process and can explain what yours would involve.
Proposals within the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site, or close to it, are judged partly on their effect on its setting, so the design and the evidence behind it need particular care. We look at that from the outset and help you put forward a proposal that sits well in its surroundings.
For a full application, the determination period is eight weeks for a smaller scheme and thirteen for a major one, counted from the date the Council validates it, and listed building consent usually runs alongside. Prior approval follows its own timetable, and we will map out the likely programme for your building at the start.
Some of our commercial and conversion work sits just outside Derby, where the neighbouring district decides the application rather than Derby City Council. We prepare your application for whichever council will decide it, and we can confirm which that is from your address.
Wider coverage
Find us
Planning & Design Practice — Derby (Head Office)
3 Woburn House, Vernon Gate, Derby, DE1 1UL
Derby, Derbyshire and the East Midlands
Get started
Do you have a building in mind, or one you already own that is ready for a new chapter? If you share the address and what you would like to do with it, we will explain which consent route you are on and what it is likely to involve. That first conversation comes at no charge.
