St Albans City and District Council

Adopted Documents We Assess Against

Development plan: St Albans District Local Plan Review 1994 (saved policies)

Documents are re-checked against the council's own website weekly. A detected change flags "Policy Update Available" for human review — live assessment standards are never replaced automatically.

St Albans City and District Council standards at a glance

2 numeric standards taken from St Albans City and District Council's own adopted documents, each shown with the paragraph it comes from. Figures differ between councils — these are this one's.

Amenity neighbouring

at least 22m

St Albans want 22 metres between upstairs rear windows that face each other, and 11 metres from your upstairs rear window to your own back boundary. It is the 11 metre one that catches people out. St Albans Local Plan paras 12.18A(ii) and (iii)

Rear extension depth

up to 3m

St Albans limit the part of your extension that runs along the shared boundary to 3 metres. Step the rest of it a metre off the boundary and you can often go deeper than that. St Albans Local Plan para 12.6B

Standards are what the council normally expects, not a guarantee. A scheme outside them can still be approved on its merits, and one inside them can still be refused for another reason.

Authored Policy Library

4 local policy checks, each citation-locked to the adopted document. National policy (NPPF, national space and daylight standards) applies alongside these.

St Albans District Local Plan Review 1994 (saved policies)

• St Albans District Local Plan Review Policy 69 — Design character (provisional citation) St Albans still works from its 1994 plan, kept alive through saved policies. Design is judged broadly under Policy 69 together with national policy - check the council's current design advice leaflets, as the plan text itself is old.
• St Albans District Local Plan Review Policy 70 — Amenity neighbouring (provisional citation) St Albans cares about window-to-window privacy. Their older plan used a 27m figure for new housing layouts, but the current Local Plan sets 22m between upper floor rear windows - see the verified record below, which is the figure to work to.
• St Albans Local Plan paras 12.18A(ii) and (iii) — Amenity neighbouring St Albans want 22 metres between upstairs rear windows that face each other, and 11 metres from your upstairs rear window to your own back boundary. It is the 11 metre one that catches people out.
• St Albans Local Plan para 12.6B — Rear extension depth St Albans limit the part of your extension that runs along the shared boundary to 3 metres. Step the rest of it a metre off the boundary and you can often go deeper than that.