- Planning authority
- Medway Council
- Postcodes
- ME1, ME4, ME5
- Noon sun, 21 March
- About 39°
- Noon sun, 21 December
- About 15°
- Planning plan
- Local Plan
- County
- Kent
The kinds of plot we look at in Chatham
In Chatham we look at most kinds of land behind and beside houses. That includes long back gardens, the classic backland plot; wide side gardens and corner plots, which often have their own frontage; garage courts, lock-up blocks and old yards; land with narrow, shared or no access; and bungalows on large plots, which can sometimes take a second home alongside or be replaced with several new ones. Size matters, but access usually matters more, and the free appraisal checks both.
Planning and light in Chatham
If your plot is in Chatham, the application will normally go to Medway Council, which judges it against its Local Plan and the council’s design guide or supplementary planning document. Those documents set local expectations on design, parking, garden sizes and how new homes should relate to the street, while the NPPF sets the wider national framework. For an address in ME1, ME4 and ME5 or nearby, the exact postcode also tells us which flood maps, sewer records and tree orders to check. Where it helps, we ask the council for pre-application advice before anything is drawn in detail.
What we can do in Chatham
Sell or partner
- Sell part of your garden
- Sell subject to planning
- Garden plot option agreement
- Planning promotion for your garden plot
- Joint venture on your garden plot
- Combine gardens with your neighbours
Design and build
- Build a new home in your garden
- Planning permission for a garden plot
- Build a home for family in your garden
- Plot feasibility and design
By plot type
- Large rear gardens
- Corner and side plots
- Garage courts and yards
- Tandem and landlocked plots
- Bungalows on large plots
What happens next
When you’re ready, tell us about your land in Chatham. A few photos help but aren’t essential. We’ll come back with a straight view of whether the plot could take a new home and which routes might suit you, from a sale to design and build. If it’s not a good fit, we’ll say so, and there’s nothing to pay either way.
Questions about garden plots in Chatham
What happens if planning is refused for a plot in Chatham?
If you agreed a sale subject to planning, the contract doesn’t complete and you keep your land. We’ll then look at the reasons Medway Council gave and tell you honestly whether a revised application, an appeal or stopping is the sensible choice. Nothing about your own house changes.
How do you stop a new home in Chatham overshadowing the neighbours?
By testing the layout against the sun and the council’s guidance. At midday on 21 March the sun in Chatham is about 39° up, so a 5 m eaves line casts a shadow of roughly 6.3 m; in December it is far lower. Spacing, roof height, orientation and single-storey designs all help keep light where it belongs.
How long does a garden plot deal in Chatham usually take?
It depends on the route. A sale of a plot that already has planning moves at the pace of the solicitors and your lender. Routes that need planning usually take many months, because of surveys, design, the council’s decision period and any amendments. Design and build usually takes well over a year in total.
Who decides planning for a new home in a garden in Chatham?
The decision is made by Medway Council, using the council’s Local Plan, the NPPF and its own design guidance. Small schemes are usually decided by planning officers, and national and council rules set out when one can go to a planning committee instead. We prepare and submit the application and answer the council’s questions, but we can’t promise the outcome.