The full drawing set for a Dacorum application — location and block plans, existing and proposed floor plans, elevations and sections, drawn to Dacorum Borough Council's validation checklist so the pack is accepted first time, delivered in days and revised free until your decision, with a free approval-odds check first.
Dacorum Borough Council granted 87% of the householder planning decisions it made in its latest published year — level with the 87% England-wide householder average. Extensive Metropolitan Green Belt covers the rural borough, concentrating growth on the three main towns and allocated sites, which is where a policy-literate drawing pack earns its keep. Its dominant Georgian (1714–1837), Victorian (1837–1901), interwar (1918–1939) and postwar (1945–1970) housing stock sets the design brief on most streets.
The permitted-development ceilings are fixed: 40m³ of new roof volume for a terraced loft and 50m³ for a semi or detached house under Class B, plus a 3m single-storey rear extension on a terrace or 4m on a detached house under Class A. Dacorum carries at least one Article 4 direction, and conservation areas including Hemel Hempstead Old Town, Berkhamsted and Tring remove those rights outright, so we confirm your exact address before a line is drawn. A validated householder application in Dacorum is determined against an 8-week statutory target.
Hemel Hempstead (a postwar New Town of planned neighbourhoods around the Marlowes centre), Berkhamsted (a historic canal-side market town in a Chilterns setting), Tring (a historic market town at the Chilterns gap), Kings Langley (a historic commuter village with a conservation-area core), Aldbury (a model rural conservation village below the Chilterns) and Bovingdon (a rural Green Belt village) — these are the Dacorum pockets our drawings cover most. Heritage designations here include Hemel Hempstead Old Town, Berkhamsted, Tring, Aldbury, Kings Langley and Bovingdon. Dacorum Borough Council weighs each proposal against the Dacorum Core Strategy 2006–2031 (adopted September 2013), where the Chilterns National Landscape (AONB) covers and adjoins Berkhamsted and Tring, adding landscape-protection constraints on design and siting. Converted and purpose-built flats appear across Hemel Hempstead and the town centres, and none of them hold householder permitted-development rights.. On roofs the borough is pitched tiled roofs on the postwar New Town housing and steep tiled and gabled roofs on the historic market-town and village cores, over postwar New Town planned neighbourhoods across Hemel Hempstead around the Marlowes centre, medieval, Georgian and Victorian market-town cores at Berkhamsted and Tring, interwar and Victorian stock and vernacular cottages in the surrounding villages and larger detached housing on the Chilterns fringe.
Whatever you are building, Dacorum Borough Council decides it from the same core set. A location plan at 1:1250 fixes the site on the map with the red-line boundary; a block plan at 1:500 shows the property in its plot; then existing and proposed floor plans and elevations at 1:100 or 1:50 show the house as it is and as it will be. Larger schemes add a section and, where policy requires, a design and access statement. Miss one and the application is returned invalid before an officer has looked at it.
The drawings are also the argument. Dacorum Borough Council assesses each proposal against the Dacorum Core Strategy 2006–2031 (adopted September 2013), and the elevations are where the case is won or lost — ridge and eaves heights, window positions, materials and how the change reads from the street. On Dacorum's stock, which runs to postwar New Town planned neighbourhoods across Hemel Hempstead around the Marlowes centre, medieval, Georgian and Victorian market-town cores at Berkhamsted and Tring, interwar and Victorian stock and vernacular cottages in the surrounding villages and larger detached housing on the Chilterns fringe, the same scheme is drawn differently to answer the concerns officers raise here. Extensive Metropolitan Green Belt covers the rural borough, concentrating growth on the three main towns and allocated sites, so the pack is built to pre-empt exactly that.
Where the property sits in a conservation area — Hemel Hempstead Old Town, Berkhamsted, Tring, Aldbury, Kings Langley and Bovingdon among Dacorum's — validation is stricter still, often demanding heritage detail and sometimes additional plans. Dacorum's Article 4 directions, confirmed in November 2022, cover employment and town-centre areas and retain the requirement for planning permission to convert identified properties to residential use, and the borough's twenty-five conservation areas add further character controls. We confirm the designation before drawing so the pack meets the higher bar first time.
Dacorum Borough Council validates against a published checklist before it assesses anything. A typical householder application needs each of these, correctly scaled and labelled:
We draw the complete set — location and block plans, existing and proposed plans, elevations and any section — to Dacorum Borough Council's checklist, then lodge it on the Planning Portal, manage validation and answer case-officer queries so the application is decided on its merits, not bounced on a technicality.
Below is Dacorum Borough Council's real householder decision record, drawn from official planning statistics and refreshed as new data lands. Dacorum grants a fair share of householder applications, with green-belt containment, the Chilterns AONB and its many conservation areas the recurring constraints on larger schemes. A complete, correctly scaled pack that answers those concerns on the elevations is validated faster and refused less often than one that leaves them for the officer to raise.
Source: MHCLG planning application statistics (householder decisions, England, 1 April 2025 - 31 March 2026). Compare every borough on our London approval-rate league table.
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Two different things sink an application, and they happen at two different stages. First is validation: a missing block plan, an unscaled elevation, no red line, no north point — Dacorum Borough Council returns the whole submission and the clock never starts. Getting the pack right at this stage is purely mechanical, and it is where a lot of self-submitted Dacorum applications lose weeks. We draw to the checklist so this never happens.
Second is the planning judgement itself, once the pack is valid. The Chilterns National Landscape (AONB) covers and adjoins Berkhamsted and Tring, adding landscape-protection constraints on design and siting. Across Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted and Tring the recurring refusals are about scale, overlooking and how the proposal sits against its neighbours — all of which are settled on the drawings. We draw the scheme to answer them before submission rather than after a refusal.
The application pack is the same discipline whatever the project. A few of the Dacorum neighbourhoods and property types we prepare drawings for most often:
Planning drawings for Hemel Hempstead's a postwar New Town of planned neighbourhoods around the Marlowes centre — scaled, validation-ready and drawn to Dacorum Borough Council's guidance.
Planning drawings for Berkhamsted's a historic canal-side market town in a Chilterns setting — scaled, validation-ready and drawn to Dacorum Borough Council's guidance.
Planning drawings for Tring's a historic market town at the Chilterns gap — scaled, validation-ready and drawn to Dacorum Borough Council's guidance.
Planning drawings for Kings Langley's a historic commuter village with a conservation-area core — scaled, validation-ready and drawn to Dacorum Borough Council's guidance.
Planning drawings for Aldbury's a model rural conservation village below the Chilterns — scaled, validation-ready and drawn to Dacorum Borough Council's guidance.
Planning drawings for Bovingdon's a rural Green Belt village — scaled, validation-ready and drawn to Dacorum Borough Council's guidance.
The route decides what Dacorum Borough Council needs and how long it takes. This is how the common Dacorum routes compare.
| Route | When it applies | Core drawings | Typical decision |
|---|---|---|---|
| Householder application | Extensions and alterations to a single house | Location, block, existing & proposed plans and elevations | About 8 weeks |
| Full application | Flats, new units, changes of use | As householder plus site plan and often a section | 8–13 weeks |
| Lawful development certificate | Confirming a scheme is permitted development | Existing & proposed plans and elevations to prove PD limits | About 8 weeks |
| Prior approval | Larger single-storey rear extensions | Plans and elevations plus neighbour notification | About 6 weeks |
In a conservation area such as Hemel Hempstead Old Town and Berkhamsted, householder permitted-development rights are often restricted, so a full application and heritage detail may be required.
A fixed process built around how Dacorum Borough Council validates and decides — most drawing sets are submission-ready within seven days of survey.
Send us your Dacorum postcode and what you want to build. We confirm your conservation and Article 4 status, tell you which application route applies, and score your odds against live Dacorum Borough Council decisions.
We measure the property and plot so the existing plans and elevations are accurate to the millimetre — the base every proposed drawing and every officer judgement is built on.
Chartered designers produce the full validation pack — location and block plans, existing and proposed plans, elevations, any section and a design and access statement — drawn to Dacorum Borough Council's checklist.
We lodge the application on the Planning Portal, manage validation and case-officer queries, and revise the drawings free until Dacorum Borough Council issues its decision.
Dacorum Borough Council validates a householder application against a set list: a location plan at 1:1250 with a red-line boundary, a block plan at 1:500, and existing and proposed floor plans and elevations at 1:100 or 1:50, each with a scale bar and north point. Larger schemes and most conservation-area work also need a design and access statement. If any of these is missing or unscaled the application is returned invalid before it is assessed.
Almost always because the drawing pack is incomplete or wrongly scaled — a missing block plan, an elevation with no scale, no red line on the location plan, no north point. Dacorum Borough Council checks the pack against its validation list before an officer ever assesses the scheme, so these purely technical gaps cost weeks. Drawing to the checklist from the outset is the simplest way to avoid a return.
Yes. We prepare the full drawing set, lodge it on the Planning Portal on your behalf, pay the Dacorum Borough Council fee where you prefer us to, and then manage validation and case-officer questions through to the decision. You get the reference number and updates without dealing with the portal or the council yourself.
A householder application is a statutory eight weeks from validation, and a full application eight to thirteen weeks depending on scale. The date that matters is validation, not submission — an invalid pack never starts the clock. Because we draw to Dacorum Borough Council's checklist the application validates quickly, so the statutory period begins without the delay a returned pack causes.
You do not strictly need a planning application, but scaled existing and proposed drawings are still worth having: a lawful development certificate from Dacorum Borough Council proves the scheme is permitted development, which lenders and buyers increasingly ask for, and your builder needs the drawings to price and build. In a conservation area such as Hemel Hempstead Old Town and Berkhamsted, permitted-development rights are often removed, so a full application may be needed after all — we confirm which before you commit.
We price each Dacorum job individually — the scope of the survey and the size of the drawing set vary from a simple rear extension to a whole-house scheme — and send a fixed, no-obligation quote within one working day. It covers the full validation pack with free revisions until Dacorum Borough Council decides. The Dacorum Borough Council application fee is separate and paid to the council. Call 020 7864 7245 to start.
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Same fixed quotes, same fast drawings — wherever your project is.