- Planning authority
- Wiltshire Council
- Postcodes
- SN15
- Noon sun, 21 March
- About 39°
- Shadow from a 5 m eaves line
- About 6.3 m
- Planning plan
- Local Plan
- County
- Wiltshire
Chippenham: light, access and policy
Every application Wiltshire Council decides goes on its public planning register, and a refusal stays there. That record doesn’t stop a later application, but the next scheme has to answer the reasons given. It is one reason we prepare a garden plot in Chippenham carefully before submitting: measured survey, access check, separation distances, trees and drainage.
We also check the planning history of your house and the gardens near it, and what the council’s Local Plan says about garden land. Past decisions on nearby plots are often the best guide to what the council will accept.
How we’d take it forward in Chippenham
Nothing is signed until you’ve seen the heads of terms and taken advice. Call us or use the form with your Chippenham address, a rough idea of where the garden runs, and whether neighbours might join in. We’ll check the title, access and planning history first, then tell you plainly whether promotion, a sale subject to planning or another route suits your plot.
Free plot appraisal
We check your title plan, access, the surrounding gardens and the policies in the council’s Local Plan as a desktop exercise, then talk it through with you. If it looks viable, we visit. No cost and no obligation.
Heads of terms
We set out the deal in writing: the term, how our fee works, the cap on planning costs we can recover, the minimum price, the marketing approach and the cap on your reasonable legal fees that we cover.
We apply for planning
We commission the surveys and drawings, take pre-application advice where it helps, submit the application and deal with the council’s questions. You pay nothing at this stage, and the decision is the council’s.
Completion and payout
On completion, sale costs, our capped planning costs and our fee come out of the proceeds in the order the agreement sets. The balance is paid to you through your solicitor.
Worth checking early
- Promotion takes longer than a straight sale: planning, then marketing, then completion, and each stage can run on.
- The plot’s price isn’t known until it’s marketed with permission; it depends on location, size, access and the permission itself.
- On a single small plot, fixed costs and our fee take a bigger share of the sale price than on a larger site.
Chippenham: questions to ask
Can neighbours in Chippenham combine gardens for a planning promotion?
Yes, and promotion often works better that way. Adjoining gardens can share one access and allow a better layout. Each owner keeps their house, signs an agreement setting out how proceeds are shared, and takes advice from their own solicitor. We can appraise the combined land as one site first.
Does a mortgage on my Chippenham home stop a planning promotion?
No, but your lender has to be involved. The lender’s charge covers the garden, so it must agree to release the plot before it’s sold, and some lenders want to approve the promotion agreement too. We raise this at the start so it doesn’t delay a sale later.
How long does planning promotion take for a garden in Chippenham?
It usually takes longer than a straight sale. Design and surveys often take a few months, then Wiltshire Council needs time to decide, and marketing and conveyancing follow. The council’s workload, extra reports and any appeal drive the timing, so we give a realistic range after the appraisal.
What happens if planning is refused for my garden in Chippenham?
You keep your land and owe nothing for planning, because our costs are only recovered from a sale with planning. Within the term we may revise the scheme and reapply, or appeal if the grounds are strong. If there’s no realistic route to permission, the agreement ends.
Other options in Chippenham
- Sell subject to planning
- Sell part of your garden
- Garage courts and yards
- Planning permission for a garden plot
- Build a home for family in your garden
- Corner and side plots

