Planning · Matlock
If you are planning an extension, a conversion or a new home in Matlock, you may be working with steep ground, an older stone building or the river. Sometimes it is all three at once. Your site is rarely far from our Matlock office at Cromford Mills, just down the valley.
Early on, we can usually tell you which authority will decide your application, and whether a conservation area or the World Heritage Site affects your plans. You will also know what the slope means for your design before anything is drawn.
Managing Director – Chartered Town Planner
How we can help you
Whatever you are planning in and around Matlock, it is likely to involve older buildings, difficult ground or both. Your design and your planning case are prepared side by side, because our planners and architects work on them together.
If your house sits on a slope, the split levels, retaining walls and access can be designed into your extension from the start rather than engineered around afterwards. It is one of the most common requests we receive in the valley.
If you want to alter, repair or reuse a historic building, including one that is listed or in the World Heritage Site, our accredited conservation architect will lead the work.
If you have an agricultural or industrial building in the Dales, you may be able to bring it into new residential or business use. We can help you find the right route, including Class Q where your building qualifies.
If you hold land or are thinking of buying some, we can appraise your site and prepare the planning application, with your layout, design and planning case developed together.
How we work with you
If your site is in or around Matlock, we can usually come and see it quickly, because our office is just down the valley at Cromford Mills. On ground this steep, standing on your site with you tells us more than any map.
Step 1
We are happy to meet you at Cromford Mills or on your site, whichever suits you better. On steep or awkward ground, a visit tells us far more than a plan.
Step 2
We check the National Park boundary, the World Heritage Site, conservation areas, listing, flood zones and levels, because several of them often apply together in this valley.
Step 3
We develop options that work with the slope and the setting, and we talk them through with you before anything is fixed.
Step 4
We prepare and submit your application to the right authority, involving the conservation officer early where your building or its setting calls for it.
Step 5
We stay in touch with the case officer while your application is considered, answer any questions that arise, and talk you through the decision when it arrives.
Local context
If your property is in the town, two of our schemes may be the most useful to look at. At Matlock Bridge we designed a residential scheme in the town’s conservation area, and our extension to a house at Matlock Bath is in a conservation area too. Both were approved. In settings like these, the materials and detail of your scheme carry as much weight as its size, which is why we settle them with you early.
The villages around Matlock bring a different mix of work. At Darley Dale, a short way north, we designed a new home that has since been built. We also worked on the planning and urban design of a masterplanned residential development there, and it has been built too. Our residential conversion at Tansley, in the village conservation area, was approved. Whether you are adding one house or planning several, questions of access, levels and character come first, and we will work through them with you.
Heritage runs through much of this valley, and so do council boundaries. At Lea Bridge, south-east of the town, we advised on the heritage and planning side of the John Smedley historic mill conversion. That scheme was decided by Amber Valley Borough Council rather than Derbyshire Dales. If your own site sits near a boundary like that, we will check which council it falls to before anything is drawn.
Wherever your site is, it helps that we can stand on it with you without a long journey. Here’s what’s typically needed to begin: an address, a few photographs and a short note of what you hope to do.
Matlock sits outside the Peak District National Park, so Derbyshire Dales District Council decides applications here, while sites a short way west fall to the Peak District National Park Authority. If your site is near that line, we will confirm which side it is on before any design work begins, because the policies that apply are different.
Much of Matlock is built on steep ground, which shapes access, parking, retaining walls and how a building looks from below. We work with the slope rather than against it, and we resolve your levels at the start, when they are easiest to change.
The Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site reaches up the valley through Cromford to Matlock Bath, and parts of the town are conservation areas. Where your property falls within either, we build the case for how your proposal respects its setting into the design from the beginning.
Parts of the town centre and the riverside lie within flood zones. This rarely rules a scheme out on its own, but it does shape ground-floor uses and floor levels, so we deal with it before your design is fixed.
RIBA
RTPI
IHBC
ARB
Projects nearby
Projects of ours in Matlock, Darley Dale and the villages nearby.
Matlock
This was for the conversion and extension of a property on Dale Road, Matlock, a late 19th century unlisted building
Darley Dale, Matlock
Working with the local planning authority, Derbyshire Dales District Council, we prepared a truly individual design that took precedent from
Darley Dale, Matlock
Lea Bridge, Matlock
Planning & Design were instructed as planning consultants to deliver a complex set of proposals for redevelopment, conversion and part
Cromford, Derbyshire
Common questions
Derbyshire Dales District Council decides applications in Matlock itself, which lies outside the Peak District National Park. A short distance to the west, the Peak District National Park Authority decides instead, and your address tells us which one you will be dealing with.
It may be if your property is towards Matlock Bath or Cromford, as the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site and its buffer zone follow the valley. Your address is enough for us to check, and to tell you what difference it makes to your plans.
A slope tends to affect the design and the build more than the approval itself. The planning questions it raises are usually overlooking and how tall your extension looks from below, and both can be designed around when they are considered from the start.
Being near the river need not rule out your plans, though it can shape floor levels, what goes on the ground floor and the flood information you need to submit. We can tell you early whether your property is in a flood zone and what that means for your design.
Your most useful first step is a site appraisal covering access, levels, flood risk and the planning policy position. It gives you a clear picture of what your land could realistically support, and what it would take to get there.
Seeing your site in person is easy to arrange from our office at Cromford Mills, just down the valley. On steep ground it usually means you get a clearer answer, and sooner.
Wider coverage
Find us
Planning & Design Practice — Matlock
Cromford Mills, Mill Road, Cromford, Matlock, DE4 3RQ (confirm exact unit and postcode)
Matlock, the Peak District and Derbyshire Dales
Get started
Do you have a house on the hillside, a building by the river or a plot of land you have been thinking about? Tell us where it is and what you are hoping for, and we will let you know where you stand. There is no charge for the first conversation.
