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Design and Access Statement

Explains the design thinking behind a scheme and how people will get to and around it. Required by statute for certain applications, and the first thing a design officer reads.

Open the specimenHow it is drafted
The tier this usually sits in
MinorThe tier this usually sits in
Wren, for a case at that tier
£1,995Wren, for a case at that tier
Specimen you can read in full
PublishedSpecimen you can read in full
Sections inside it
7Sections inside it
A page from the Design and Access Statement specimen.
Design and Access Statement. A page from the real specimen. Watermarked throughout, because a specimen must never be mistakable for a signed submission.

What is inside

Section by section.

  1. 01Use: what the development is for
  2. 02Amount: how much of it there is
  3. 03Layout: how the buildings and the spaces between them relate
  4. 04Scale: height, width, length, and why those
  5. 05Landscaping: what happens to the ground
  6. 06Appearance: materials, detailing, and the reasoning
  7. 07Access: how people arrive, enter, and move through, including inclusive access

When it is required

Why a council asks for this.

Article 9(2) of the Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2015 sets out when one is required. The conservation-area limb catches a single new home, which is one of the commonest shapes of application and the one most often missed.

Who signs it

Required when
Development in a conservation area comprising one or more dwellings, or 100 square metres or more of floorspace
Major applications
Minor schemes of more than one dwelling
Listed building consent applications
The constraint layer that makes a Design and Access Statement necessary, rendered over a street basemap.
The constraint this answers. A real capture of the live map on the street basemap, not an illustration of one.

Why it exists

Documents answer constraints.

A council does not ask for this because it likes paperwork. It asks because something on or near your site triggers it, and the appraisal will tell you whether yours is triggered before you pay for anything.

Check your own site

Asked and answered

About the Design and Access Statement.

Is a Design and Access Statement required for a householder extension?
Not for works to a single existing dwelling outside a conservation area. The Planning Statement carries the design case there. Inside a conservation area the statutory trigger can bite, and Wren adds it automatically when your site meets the article 9(2) test.
What happens if I leave it out when it is required?
The council refuses to validate the application. It never reaches an officer, and the clock never starts. This is one of the most common reasons an application is bounced.

Often alongside

Documents that usually travel with it.

All fourteen documents

Find out whether your site needs one.

The appraisal names the route, lists the documents that route requires, and prices the set before you commit to anything.

Draw your siteWhat a set costs