David Cameron and your Planning Application

What will a new Conservative & Liberal Government hold for your planning application?

A quick summary of various stories shows that the new Government will put more weighting on quality rather than time targets. We have had direct experience of planners not discussing an application instead just refusing it thus dealing with it within there 8 week target. A new application will have to be made. If a few extra days were taken then it could have been a better result for all.

Seems that generally that the Lib-Dems are really on the same page.

With new mayors to large centres, this could bring a singular and strong vision rather like New York. Boris Johnson and the like will have will and now extra muscle to tackle housing and planning issues directly.

So if planners are set free of ridged time tables will we get better service, quality of dialogue and better result or will the system become more frustrating, drawn out and ambiguous? only time will tell.

Full Stories Below

“The difference with Labour since 1997 is that the speed of planning applications has been too significant. Eight-week and 30-week targets have over-emphasised the speed and under-emphasised the quality of applications. The speed of planning applications is not the be all and end all,”

Full Story Link

The Tories have also today confirmed plans to introduce mayors to 12 major UK cities, while giving Johnson responsibility for the £1.1bn budget of the London Homes and Communities Agency.

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The Liberal Democrats have today pledged support for the Conservatives’ proposed overhaul to the planning system.

The Lib Dems want to introduce third-party right of appeal where applications contradict local plans and axe quangos including the Infrastructure Planning Commission, according to its 109-page election manifesto, which was published today. These back up policies set out in the Tory manifesto on Tuesday.

Full Story Link

Architect in the House - Shelter/RIBA

Architect in the House gives homeowners an hour’s free consultation with a RIBA chartered architect in exchange for a donation to Shelter, the housing and homelessness charity.

This year in the UK, 53,000 homes will be

repossessed. Almost 1.8 million households are awaiting social housing. And 1.6 million children are growing up in homes that are squalid, overcrowded or temporary.

Architect in the House Website Link

YOOP Architects are proud to join the effort to improve housing and living standards.

Build with out Planning Consent!: Permitted development

Achieving the best for your home, maximising space, minimising local authority intervention.

Permitted Development is your right as home owner.

Many builders advise client that planning permission is not required, and they are right. But it is important to ensure that the proposals fall within the rules. If not the local authority will take enforcement actionto make it compliant.

We would recommend that you apply for a Certificate of Lawfulness prior to construction. It does not seek permission but agreement that the proposals fall within the lawful rules of permitted development. This will safe guard the value on sale of the property.

For a great web site on permitted development click here http://www.permitteddevelopment.org/

For any questions on permitted development email Gordon, ge@yooparchitects.co.uk

Taking the Pain out of redeveloping a GP Surgery

Refurbishment and addition of two new consultation rooms to a south east GP Surgery has been completed.

The design made use of the existing envelope of the building, avoiding a major cost of construction. The internal arrangements where made more efficient via a curved wall. The wall allows enough space for the waiting zone and corresponding administration area while providing a relaxing and fresh environment for patients.

Special grade flooring has been fitted to deliver the highest quality, clean environment for staff and patients. The Surgery management undertook the upgrade to the practice to improve the service to the community but also to maintain their competitive edge as patients can now decide who and where they will get their medical services from.

The works were undertaken in conjunction with Construction Element, http://www.constructionelement.co.uk/

Do you have any questions about GP Surgeries? cost/ time/ funding? email: ge@yooparchitects.co.uk

Residential & Commercial Refurbishment in London

Refurbishment of 400sqm of commercial retail space and 9 flats in Islington now on site.

Three buildings are being rebuild internally to provide high quality apartments to Seven Sisters Road area. The apartments will have roof terraces for amenity as well as close proximity to Finsbury Park. Internally the apartment will have high quality kitchens and bathrooms.

The ground floor is being remodeled to provide excellent high quality retail space to the very busy Seven Sisters Road. The scheme is an exemplar of a mixed use building providing a sustainable building model for the future.

Click here for more onsite photos

Contractor: Vascroft

Architects: YOOP

Engineers: A E Butler

Project managment: JP Jelly

First Look: New Build Affordable Housing Scheme Northwest London

YOOP Architects in conjunction with PrestonBennett Land department have designed a preliminary scheme for Origin Housing Group.

The scheme will comprise affordable housing with generous amenity space, private and shared.

Tree Survey by David Clarke Chartered Landscape Architect, info@dccla.co.uk

New Build House Wins Approval

YOOP Architects has successfully gained planning consent for a new build 3 bed house in Middlesex. The design overcame some challenging planning situations to achieve the result. The potential uplift in value being over 500%.

One of London's Leading Cash and Carry Opens New Depot at Hayes

Dhamecha Cash and Carry open store No 6.

The Dhamecha Group is the largest partner in the Today buying group, which is one of Europe's biggest buying group.

This new cash and carry outlet in Hayes is Dhamecha’s sixth outlet. The new depot is over 8000sqm of spacious aisles with over 200 parking bays and 14 tills, reducing your paying and exit time.

YOOP worked closely with the client to maximise available sale floor space while still providing staff offices and amenity space.

The site was previously a warehouse and distribution centre for a leading high street retailer, who unfortunately didn’t make it through the recession.

The scheme required the replacement of all the existing mechanical and electrical services, including fire detection systems, internal demolition of mezzanine floors and redundant plant machinery.

The team at Dhamecha took the bold decision to renew all the ageing services bringing them up to current building regulation standards. Working closely with building inspectors Butler and Young Ltd (Colin Winton and Alan Hills), and the principle contractor, Vascroft Contractors Ltd (Shashi Vekaria), the whole project was turned around in less than 5 months from issuing the F10, to the opening celebrations last week.

YOOP dealt with all planning issues, building regulations and also undertook the role of CDM Coordinator.

YOOP Architect's Bashir Khwaja with Pradip Dhamecha CEO

Refurbishment in Islington

Extreme refurbishment of 400sqm of commercial retail space and 8 flats in Islington now on site. Most of the walls and floors in the Victorian terrace will be replaced.

The site is located along the busy Seven Sisters Road. Works are to be completed by the end of the year. The development will provide a number of 2 bed high quality flats, some of which will be duplex with private terraces.

Consultant team

Contractor: Vascroft Contractors Ltd

Engineer: AE Butlers & Partners

Building Control: Butler & Young Ltd

Clients Agent: JP Jelly Ltd

Architects & CDM Co ordinators: YOOP Architects

Contact Bashir for more information. bk@yooparchitects.co.uk

GP Surgery reception desk

New reception desk allows visual surviellance of both entrance and seating area.


Bashir inspecting low energy/low maintenance LED downlighters.

El yoop

GP Surgery pre hand over

Construction finished, clean up time before handing over to the client.



El yoop

GP Surgery Takes Shape

The curved wall in construction which will establish a new waiting area and treatment rooms.

Medical Centre

YOOP Architects have been appointed to design the new facilities at Sherard Road Medical Centre in Eltham South East London a new look for 2010. Working alongside Construction Element Contractors we will be creating a fantastic new revamp which will providing patients, practitioners and receptionists with a fresh inspiring working environment. Watch out for February completion.

Contractors: Construction Element

contact Bashir for more details or advice, bk@yooparchitects.co.uk

Alliance with Compliance

The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) has now drawn its two year campaign on risk assessments to a close.

The campaign examined the risk assessment attitudes and behaviours of organisations of various sizes across Europe. The findings are somewhat surprising - between 10%-15% of SMEs do not carry out risk assessments despite this being a legal requirement!

And the reasons why? A large percentage of companies just do not deem this necessary and simply do not conduct risk assessments or even documented general workplace checks. This may indicate that SMEs have fewer problems than larger companies, or that they lack awareness and knowledge.

The campaign also bought to light some of the main issues that companies are concerned about in the workplace: accidents, musculoskeletal disorders and stress being the top three - all of which can be less of a concern with a documented risk assessment.

www.westminstercompliance.co.uk

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