Two-storey extension drawings for Keighley homes — bedroom above, living space below, drawn against the 3-metre projection and 7-metre boundary rules and to Bradford Council's design guidance, delivered in days and revised free until your decision.
Bradford Council granted 86% of the householder planning decisions it made in its latest published year — 1 point below the 87% England-wide householder average. The setting of the listed Cliffe Castle and its registered park is weighed heavily on nearby schemes, which is where a policy-literate drawing pack earns its keep. Its dominant Victorian (1837–1901) housing stock sets the design brief on most streets.
Under Class B, a rear dormer stays permitted development up to 40m³ of added roof volume on a terrace or 50m³ on a semi-detached or detached house, while Class A allows a single-storey rear extension of 3m beyond the original rear wall on a terrace and 4m on a detached house before a full application is needed. In conservation areas such as Keighley Town Centre, Devonshire Park and Cliffe Castle and Low Utley those rights are removed, so we confirm your exact address before a line is drawn. A validated householder application in Keighley is determined against an 8-week statutory target.
Keighley town centre (Victorian stone terraces and civic buildings in the conservation area), Devonshire Park (grander stone villas around Cliffe Castle and its park), Low Utley (an early stone hamlet protected as a conservation area), Steeton (the stone mill village in the Aire valley conservation area), Silsden (a market town of stone terraces and cottages up the valley) and Oakworth (millstone-grit terraces on the Worth valley slopes) — these are the Keighley pockets our drawings cover most. Heritage designations here include Keighley Town Centre, Devonshire Park and Cliffe Castle, Low Utley, Leeming, Steeton and Silsden. Bradford Council weighs each proposal against the Bradford Local Plan / Core Strategy, where dense back-to-back and through-terrace layouts leave little room for rear extensions without party-wall and daylight impacts. Converted flats are common in the Keighley terraces, and flats and maisonettes carry no householder permitted-development rights.. On roofs the borough is Yorkshire stone-slate pitched roofs on the terraces and back-to-backs and hipped stone-slate roofs on the villas, over dense Victorian millstone-grit terraces and back-to-backs, mill-town through-houses and gritstone semis and villas around the parks.
Adding at first floor changes the question the case officer asks. A single-storey extension is judged mostly on daylight and garden loss; a two-storey extension is judged on overlooking, bulk against the neighbouring roofline, and whether it reads as part of the house or bolted onto it. Keighley is largely dense Victorian millstone-grit terraces and back-to-backs, mill-town through-houses and gritstone semis and villas around the parks, and Yorkshire stone-slate pitched roofs on the terraces and back-to-backs and hipped stone-slate roofs on the villas set what a matching roof actually means here.
The permitted-development route exists but is narrow: 3 metres of rear projection, a 7-metre stand-off from the rear boundary, eaves and ridge no higher than the original, and side-facing upper windows obscure-glazed and non-opening below 1.7 metres above floor level. Most two-storey schemes fail one of those, usually the 7-metre boundary rule on a shorter garden, and go in as a full application instead. We establish which route applies before designing, because it changes the drawing set.
The setting of the listed Cliffe Castle and its registered park is weighed heavily on nearby schemes. Keighley carries no Article 4 direction, but the Keighley Town Centre, Devonshire Park and Cliffe Castle, and Low Utley conservation areas remove permitted-development rights across large parts of the Victorian stone townscape.
Some two-storey rear extensions are permitted development. You will need a full application to Bradford Council if any of these apply:
We set the projection and boundary distance on the site plan, prove the roof-pitch match on the elevations, and specify obscure glazing on the side windows — the three things Bradford Council checks first — then submit a validation-complete pack.
Below is Bradford Council's real householder decision record, drawn from official planning statistics and refreshed as new data lands. Bradford grants most householder applications in Keighley, with dense terrace layouts and conservation-area stone controls the leading constraints. Two-storey schemes attract more neighbour comment than any other householder work, so the overlooking and daylight case has to be made on the drawings.
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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Across Keighley town centre, Devonshire Park and Low Utley, the schemes that succeed set the first floor back from the ground floor, keep the ridge below the original, and treat the flank wall as blank or obscure-glazed. On dense victorian millstone-grit terraces and back-to-backs, matching the eaves line matters more than matching the brick: an extension that carries the existing eaves through reads as original even in a different material.
Dense back-to-back and through-terrace layouts leave little room for rear extensions without party-wall and daylight impacts. We draw the 45-degree daylight test from the neighbour's nearest habitable window, show the window positions in section, and set out the steel and foundation implications early — a two-storey extension changes the load path, so the structural design and the planning design have to be developed together rather than in sequence.
We draw two-storey extensions across Keighley. A few of the areas where they come up most often:
Two storey extension drawings for Keighley town centre — Victorian stone terraces and civic buildings in the conservation area — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Bradford Council's guidance.
Two storey extension drawings for Devonshire Park — grander stone villas around Cliffe Castle and its park — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Bradford Council's guidance.
Two storey extension drawings for Low Utley — an early stone hamlet protected as a conservation area — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Bradford Council's guidance.
Two storey extension drawings for Steeton — the stone mill village in the Aire valley conservation area — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Bradford Council's guidance.
Two storey extension drawings for Silsden — a market town of stone terraces and cottages up the valley — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Bradford Council's guidance.
Two storey extension drawings for Oakworth — millstone-grit terraces on the Worth valley slopes — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Bradford Council's guidance.
The first-floor limits are tighter than the ground-floor ones. This is how the common cases compare.
| Scheme | Permitted development? | Deciding limit | What Bradford Council checks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Two-storey rear, 3m projection, 7m+ to boundary | Often yes | 3m projection / 7m boundary | Roof match, side-window glazing |
| Two-storey rear, under 7m to boundary | No — full application | Rear-boundary distance | Overlooking, daylight, garden loss |
| Two-storey side extension | No — full application | Side elevation | Gap to boundary, street rhythm |
| Two-storey wraparound | No — full application | Combined footprint | Bulk, massing, neighbour amenity |
| Any two-storey on designated land | No — full application | Designation | Character and appearance |
Limits from the GPDO 2015, Schedule 2, Part 1, Class A — two-storey rear extension conditions.
A fixed process built around how Bradford Council validates and decides two-storey applications.
Send us your Keighley postcode and garden depth. We measure the 7-metre boundary rule against your plot, confirm designation status, and score your odds against live Bradford Council decisions.
We measure the original rear wall, eaves and ridge heights, garden depth and every neighbouring window that faces the site — the inputs the daylight and overlooking case is built from.
Chartered designers develop the two-storey addition to your brief with the roof and eaves resolved, and we coordinate the load path so the structural scheme and the planning scheme are the same building.
We submit the application, manage validation and case-officer queries, and revise the drawings free until Bradford Council issues its decision.
Often, but not always. A two-storey rear extension can be permitted development if it projects no more than 3 metres, sits at least 7 metres from the rear boundary, does not exceed the existing eaves and ridge, and has obscure-glazed non-opening side windows below 1.7 metres. In Keighley, the 7-metre rule is what most commonly forces a full application to Bradford Council.
No part of a permitted-development two-storey rear extension may come within 7 metres of the boundary opposite the rear wall of the house. It exists to protect the neighbour behind you from being overlooked at first floor. On shorter Keighley gardens this is decisive, and we measure it on survey before any design work rather than discovering it at validation. Bradford Council is the decision-maker.
Not under permitted development — two-storey side extensions always need a full application to Bradford Council. They are assessed on the gap to the boundary, whether the street's rhythm of spaces between houses survives, and whether the extension is subordinate to the original. Setting the first floor back from the front building line and down from the ridge is what usually makes the difference. This applies to your Keighley address specifically.
Overlooking is the most common objection, and it is answerable on the drawings. We position habitable-room windows away from neighbouring gardens, obscure-glaze and fix shut anything on the flank below 1.7 metres, and show the sight lines in section. Where the geometry is tight, a rooflight or a high-level window gives the same daylight without the mutual overlooking that draws objections. This applies to your Keighley address specifically. Bradford Council is the decision-maker.
Almost certainly. Excavating within 3 metres of a neighbouring structure and building on or up to the boundary both trigger the Party Wall etc. Act 1996, and a two-storey extension usually does both. It is entirely separate from Bradford Council's planning decision, so we flag the notice period early and detail the junction on the drawings. This applies to your Keighley address specifically.
Yes. Adding a floor changes the load path from roof to foundation, so beams, padstones and foundation depths all need designing and calculating for building control. Planning and building regulations are separate consents, and the structural set is what building control assesses — we prepare both so the approved scheme is the buildable one. This applies to your Keighley address specifically. Bradford Council is the decision-maker.
We quote each Keighley two-storey extension individually, because plot depth, roof form and structural complexity vary house to house, and send a fixed, no-obligation quote within one working day. It covers the drawing pack with free revisions until Bradford Council approves. Call 020 7864 7245 to start.
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