Studio Planning Permission.

[Nod]

Hello, kind people of the studio persuasion!

My wife currently leases a pair of rooms on the top floor of a lovely old building, which she has planning permission to use as a yoga/treatment studio and office space. It has loads of windows and a big skylight which would IMO make the main teaching room pretty good as a photographic studio. There isn't much available time, since the space is well booked by other teachers as a yoga space but there are a few slots available during afternoons when the space lies empty (and therefore not earning). What I'm wondering is what usage photographic studio owners have their planning for? Is it a specific photo studio one or a more general one, eg office space? If necessary (and cost effective), we could apply for another change of use but in an ideal world, her current usage would cover it.

 

[Studi0488]

Just do it, never ever open that can of worms.

 

[Bayrunner]

Every local council will have a Duty Planning Officer who will deal with an informal enquiry to establish if you need to make a formal application. Call them and discuss....they are there to,help, and do. It saves everybody time and money in the long run. However, Policy and interpretation varies from council to,council, so it's impossible to say what answer you will get.

Based on the information in your post, I would say that you will not need to apply, assuming the current permission is for a commercial venture.

 

[Nod]

Just do it, never ever open that can of worms.

Au contraire! Do everything by the book then it can't come back and bite you in the gutes. The studio (Yoga) will soon be her only income so losing it due to being shut down for impropper permissions would be a pain, as it would be for anyone running a studio from their converted garage as a business.

Bayrunner, thank you for that. Unfortunately, the "help" desk were rather less than helpful with our original questions when we went through the process for change of use from pure office space, their only advice being to pay the fees, apply and if it got turned down, follow the recommendations and reapply. It's possible that things have changed in the intervening couple of years but I doubt it!

 

[Studi0488]

What you could find is that you end up cocking everything up for everyone else. ie you change the use, thus stopping the other activities, your only using it now and again so whats the problem ? are you doing it commercialy, are you renting the space?, are you getting public liability?, are you informing the lease company that your wife is sub leasing?, business rates change depending on use.......this list is a long one ?

 

[big soft moose]

Bayrunner, thank you for that. Unfortunately, the "help" desk were rather less than helpful with our original questions when we went through the process for change of use from pure office space, their only advice being to pay the fees, apply and if it got turned down, follow the recommendations and reapply. It's possible that things have changed in the intervening couple of years but I doubt it!

devon (exeter) planning are a nightmare in that respect, they never commit themselves to anything unless you actually put an application in, in my experience

that said what's the current use designation ? - If its " business" then you ought to be fine using it as a studio without a change

 

[snapalot]

The main classes of use are A1, A2 and A3.

Might pay to find out the classification and if a studo falls within the current one then no need to do anything.

I have a shop and studio and come under A1, I would need to apply for A2 if I wished to change to an office and A3 if I wanted to sell beefburgers.

 

[Bayrunner]

Bayrunner, thank you for that. Unfortunately, the "help" desk were rather less than helpful with our original questions when we went through the process for change of use from pure office space, their only advice being to pay the fees, apply and if it got turned down, follow the recommendations and reapply. It's possible that things have changed in the intervening couple of years but I doubt it!

From what you are saying your,previous conversation relates to the change of use from an office to yoga studio which does move it into a different planning class. I believe a photography studio will fall into the same classification as the yoga studio, and your duty planner should be able to confirm this- at least informally. Alternatively there are a good number of independent Planning Consultants who would quickly give you advice... Have a look on Yell, or let Google be thy friend under Planning Consultants in your area. A quick chat on the phone won't cost anything.

The other point is that you fear losing the use as a yoga studio: if there was an enforcement action against you using it as a photo studio, the action would only be to stop you using it for photography. You have permission to use it for yoga and that could not be revoked unless the permission included clauses that you have violated which would,be unusual.

 

[Nod]

Thanks again Jon and Pete. There are plans afoot to expand into further premises so we'll look into the possibility of the extra usage then. At the moment, there's very little down time at the current place - booked into 2014 and a waiting list for most of next year. The downside could be that if we/I did advertise the space as a photo studio, I may have to actually do some ****! (Can barely bring myself to type the "W" word!) Could handle that though - mostly run via phone and just a few trips to open up/close up at either end of a session.