Single-storey, double-storey, rear and side extension drawings for St Marychurch homes — measured to Torbay Council's design guidance, delivered in days and revised free until your decision, with a free approval-odds check before you commit.
Torbay Council granted 90% of the householder planning decisions it made in its latest published year — 3 points above the 87% England-wide householder average. St Marychurch contains Babbacombe Downs, Cary Park, Maidencombe conservation areas (Babbacombe Downs designated 1982), so materials, fenestration and roof form are assessed against the appraisal, which is where a policy-literate drawing pack earns its keep. Its dominant Victorian (1837–1901) and interwar (1918–1939) housing stock sets the design brief on most streets.
Class A and Class B set the thresholds — a rear dormer to 40m³ on a terrace or 50m³ on a semi or detached, and a single-storey rear extension to 3m on a terrace or 4m on a detached house — beyond which Torbay Council needs a full application. St Marychurch carries at least one Article 4 direction, and conservation areas including Babbacombe Downs, Cary Park and Maidencombe remove those rights outright, so we confirm your exact address before a line is drawn. A validated householder application in St Marychurch is determined against an 8-week statutory target.
Babbacombe Downs (conservation area designated in 1982), Cary Park (conservation area designated in 1987), Maidencombe (conservation area designated in 1986) and St Marychurch (conservation area designated in 1980) — these are the St Marychurch pockets our drawings cover most. Heritage designations here include Babbacombe Downs, Cary Park, Maidencombe and St Marychurch. Torbay Council weighs each proposal against Torbay Council's adopted local plan and its householder design guidance, where the 6,640 homes here are 35% pre-1900, 12% 1919-1929, 8% 1930-1939, which is what sets the realistic roof and rear-projection options. On roofs the borough is steeply pitched slate roofs, valley gutters and party parapets typical of pre-1900 building and hipped tiled roofs typical of early interwar building, over Victorian and earlier houses (35% of 6,640 homes), early interwar houses (12%) and 1930s semi-detached and detached houses (8%).
Heritage designation is the single biggest variable in St Marychurch, and it is address-specific: Babbacombe Downs (conservation area designated in 1982), Cary Park (conservation area designated in 1987), Maidencombe (conservation area designated in 1986) and St Marychurch (conservation area designated in 1980). Inside those boundaries permitted development is curtailed and Torbay Council assesses materials, window detail and roof form against the area's own appraisal, so a scheme that would be waved through two streets away can need a full application here.
Torbay Council has 2 recorded Article 4 directions, removing permitted development for rear and side extensions and other roof alterations, including rooflights — check the address before assuming PD applies in St Marychurch.
On stock, St Marychurch is Victorian and earlier houses (35% of 6,640 homes), early interwar houses (12%) and 1930s semi-detached and detached houses (8%) — which is why steeply pitched slate roofs, valley gutters and party parapets typical of pre-1900 building and hipped tiled roofs typical of early interwar building govern what a loft or rear projection can realistically be. Torbay Council decided 266 householder applications in the latest published year and granted 90%, with 37% issued inside the eight-week target. We work from the council's own published record.
The full build-period split for St Marychurch runs pre-1900 35% (2,330 homes), 1900-1918 7% (490 homes), 1919-1929 12% (830 homes), 1930-1939 8% (510 homes), 1945-1954 1% (70 homes), 1955-1964 6% (380 homes), 1965-1972 7% (460 homes), 1973-1982 3% (200 homes), 1983-1992 6% (370 homes), 1993-1999 3% (180 homes) and 2000-2008 6% (370 homes). That distribution is why pre-1900 detailing dominates the drawings here, and it is measured from council-tax records rather than assumed from the street name.
Torbay Council also decides for Barton with Watcombe, Churston with Galmpton, Roundham with Hyde, Tormohun and Wellswood, so a decision in St Marychurch sits inside a wider pattern of decisions we track across the same authority — useful when an officer cites a precedent from the next area over.
The Article 4 directions recorded for this council include Churston and Polsham. Each removes a specific permitted-development right inside its own boundary, which is why the check is done on the address rather than on the town.
Published figures for St Marychurch and Torbay Council. These are the numbers that decide what is realistic on your street, so we work from them rather than from national averages.
| Measure | St Marychurch |
|---|---|
| Dwellings recorded | 6,640 |
| Built pre-1900 | 2,330 (35%) |
| Built 1900-1918 | 490 (7%) |
| Built 1919-1929 | 830 (12%) |
| Built 1930-1939 | 510 (8%) |
| Built 1945-1954 | 70 (1%) |
| Built 1955-1964 | 380 (6%) |
| Built 1965-1972 | 460 (7%) |
| Built 1973-1982 | 200 (3%) |
| Built 1983-1992 | 370 (6%) |
| Built 1993-1999 | 180 (3%) |
| Built 2000-2008 | 370 (6%) |
| Built before 1919 | 42% |
| Built 1919–1939 | 20% |
| Built 1945–2008 | 31% |
| Conservation areas in St Marychurch | 4 (Babbacombe Downs, Cary Park…) |
| Conservation areas district-wide | 24 |
| Article 4 directions recorded | 2 |
| Householder applications decided | 266 |
| Householder applications granted | 90% |
| Decided within 8 weeks | 37% |
Dwelling stock from VOA council-tax data at 31 March 2025; conservation-area and Article 4 counts from planning.data.gov.uk (MHCLG); decision figures are Torbay Council's own, from MHCLG live table PS2 for the year to 31 March 2026.
St Marychurch homes come in a handful of recurring shapes, and each one points to a different extension. The borough is built largely from Victorian and earlier houses (35% of 6,640 homes), early interwar houses (12%) and 1930s semi-detached and detached houses (8%), so a Victorian terrace usually wants a rear or side-return infill, while an interwar semi has room for a wider single-storey wrap or a two-storey side addition. Torbay Council judges every one of them against Torbay Council's adopted local plan and its householder design guidance, weighing footprint, height and the impact on the house next door before it looks at the elevations.
That is why the drawings decide the outcome. We set the extension depth against the permitted-development limits precisely, keep the eaves and ridge within the allowances, and plot the 45-degree daylight lines to the neighbours' windows so the case officer can see the amenity test is passed. St Marychurch contains Babbacombe Downs, Cary Park, Maidencombe conservation areas (Babbacombe Downs designated 1982), so materials, fenestration and roof form are assessed against the appraisal, so we design around it from the first sketch rather than discover it at validation.
St Marychurch also protects whole streets — Babbacombe Downs, Cary Park, Maidencombe and St Marychurch among them. Torbay Council has 2 recorded Article 4 directions, removing permitted development for rear and side extensions and other roof alterations, including rooflights — check the address before assuming PD applies in St Marychurch. On designated land the larger-home extension route and most side extensions stop being permitted development, so we confirm your address against those layers before drawing a line.
Plenty of St Marychurch extensions are permitted development and need no planning application — a single-storey rear extension within the depth and height limits is the common case. You will normally need to apply to Torbay Council if any of these apply:
We draw the footprint, the ridge and eaves heights and the neighbours' daylight on the page — the relationships Torbay Council's officers weigh first — and submit a validation-complete pack, whether that is a lawful development certificate, a prior-approval notification or a full householder application.
Below is Torbay Council's real householder decision record, drawn from official planning statistics and refreshed as new data lands. Torbay Council granted 90% of its householder applications in the year to 31 March 2026, and Babbacombe Downs shapes what is approved here. A complete, policy-literate extension pack anticipates those pressure points before submission, which is why professionally drawn applications are decided faster and refused less often than DIY ones.
Source: MHCLG planning application statistics (householder decisions, England, 1 April 2025 - 31 March 2026). Compare every borough on our London approval-rate league table.
Tell us about your project and get a fixed, no-obligation quote back within one working day. If you don't need planning permission at all, we'll tell you that too — for free.
Across Babbacombe Downs, Cary Park and Maidencombe, the extension that lands most often is the single-storey rear addition — a glazed kitchen-diner across the back of the house, kept within the permitted-development depth or taken to a full application where the ground floor wants more. On the borough's victorian and earlier houses (35% of 6,640 homes), a side-return infill frequently pairs with it to square off the plan; on wider 1930s semi-detached and detached houses (8%), a two-storey side or rear extension can add a bedroom above without swallowing the garden.
The 6,640 homes here are 35% pre-1900, 12% 1919-1929, 8% 1930-1939, which is what sets the realistic roof and rear-projection options. We size the extension to the amenity and daylight tests, match the roof and materials to the host house, and keep enough garden to satisfy Torbay Council's space standards — so the scheme answers the borough's questions before an objection can raise them. Where permitted-development rights are used up or removed, we prepare the householder application to the council's extension design guidance instead.
We draw extensions on every street in the borough. A few of the neighbourhoods where St Marychurch projects come up most often:
Extension drawings for Babbacombe Downs's conservation area designated in 1982 — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Torbay Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Cary Park's conservation area designated in 1987 — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Torbay Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Maidencombe's conservation area designated in 1986 — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Torbay Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for St Marychurch's conservation area designated in 1980 — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Torbay Council's guidance.
The right extension in St Marychurch depends on your house type and how much garden you can give up. This is how the main options compare on planning route and what they add.
| Extension type | Permitted development? | What it adds | What Torbay Council checks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single-storey rear | Often, within 3m/4m depth (6m/8m via prior approval) | Bigger kitchen-diner across the back | Depth, height, neighbour daylight (45°) |
| Side-return infill | Sometimes, if within width and height limits | Squares off an L-shaped ground floor | Width vs the original house, glazing to boundary |
| Two-storey rear/side | No — full application | Extra bedroom or bathroom above | Bulk, overlooking, 7m rear-boundary gap |
| Wraparound (rear + side) | No — full application | Whole-width open-plan ground floor | Combined footprint and garden retained |
Route depends on your street — conservation areas such as Babbacombe Downs and Cary Park and Article 4 directions can remove permitted-development rights.
A fixed process built around how Torbay Council validates and decides householder extension applications — most drawings are submission-ready within seven days of survey.
Tell us your St Marychurch postcode and house type. We confirm your conservation and Article 4 status, how much permitted-development depth you have left, and score your odds against live Torbay Council decisions.
We measure the existing footprint, floor and eaves levels, boundary distances and the neighbours' window positions — the numbers the depth limits and daylight tests depend on.
Chartered designers develop the single-storey, two-storey or side extension to your brief, drawn inside the permitted-development limits or to Torbay Council's extension design guidance.
We submit the certificate, prior-approval notice or application, manage validation and case-officer queries, and revise the drawings free until Torbay Council issues its decision.
Not always. A single-storey rear extension up to 3 metres deep on a terrace or semi, or 4 metres on a detached house, and no higher than 4 metres, is usually permitted development. In St Marychurch you will need to apply to Torbay Council for two-storey extensions, side extensions wider than half the house, anything forward of the front wall, deeper rear extensions under the larger-home prior-approval route, and any extension in a conservation area such as Babbacombe Downs and Cary Park.
Standard permitted development allows 3 metres on a terraced or semi-detached house and 4 metres on a detached one. The larger-home extension scheme can double that to 6 or 8 metres, but it needs a prior-approval notification to Torbay Council and a neighbour-consultation period, and it does not apply on designated land such as St Marychurch's conservation areas. We confirm which route your property qualifies for before drawing.
Two-storey and double-storey extensions almost always need a full householder application to Torbay Council, because they fall outside permitted development on most homes. The council looks closely at bulk, overlooking of neighbours and the 7-metre gap a two-storey rear extension must keep from the rear boundary. We design to those tests and show the daylight and privacy angles on the drawings. This applies to your St Marychurch address specifically.
A householder planning application in St Marychurch runs to a statutory eight-week target, a larger-home prior-approval notification to around six weeks including the neighbour-consultation period, and a lawful development certificate to eight weeks. Incomplete submissions stall at validation, so we submit a complete pack and manage officer queries to keep the decision on schedule. Torbay Council is the decision-maker.
Yes — planning permission and building regulations are separate consents, and almost every extension needs both. Planning governs whether you can build it; building control governs how it is built, covering structure, insulation, drainage and fire safety. We prepare the building-regulations drawings alongside the planning set so Torbay Council's building control or an approved inspector can sign the work off. This applies to your St Marychurch address specifically.
Every house and brief is different, so we price each St Marychurch extension individually and send a fixed, no-obligation quote back within one working day. It covers the full drawing pack with free revisions until Torbay Council approves, and we tell you upfront whether your extension qualifies as permitted development. Call 020 7864 7245 to get started.
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