Planning Permission in Catford | Fixed-Fee Plans

No Article 4 Direction covers Lewisham, which keeps the Catford permitted-development route open on unlisted houses. The Catford setting is 1930s semi-detached, post-war centre, which shapes what passes near Catford Cat. If your Catford address is inside Blackheath, treat permitted development as reduced and plan for a full Lewisham Council application. Every Catford enquiry starts with that check.

The Catford Article 4 position is established at survey, before design. A SE6 survey answers most of it — where the 1930s semi-detached allows the rear wall to go. The borough policy layer over every SE6 address is set out on Lewisham planning. The Catford survey then carries into building regulations drawings in Catford if the project runs on to construction.

The SE6 bottleneck is validation. London Borough of Lewisham needs one to two weeks, and a missing drawing resets it. A Catford project opens with an on-site laser survey, which is what makes the later Lewisham Council submission robust against a validation query.

Statutory periods: 8 weeks from validation for a householder application, 13 weeks for a major scheme, 6 weeks for prior approval with a 21 days neighbour consultation, and 5 weeks for a full plans building control submission. A party structure notice requires one month notice and two months where excavation is involved.

Officer queries on a Catford application come to us, not to you. A Catford pack that misses a scale bar is a pack London Borough of Lewisham will reject — ours do not.

We would rather redesign a SE6 rear elevation than argue an objection. A Catford measured survey captures the roof structure as well as the plan.

Late notices are what stall Catford sites more than planning does. Once consent is granted, loft conversion drawings follows for the SE6 property.

Catford is characterised by 1930s semi-detached, post-war flats, concentrated across SE6 in the Catford / Bellingham area. Every Catford scheme starts from what is actually there: 1930s semi-detached, post-war flats, surveyed to the millimetre before a proposal is drawn. On SE6 plots specifically, on these 1930s semis the prior approval route often replaces a full application, and the drawing set is smaller as a result. That detail drives the SE6 construction sequence. The prevailing Catford eaves line is the reference Lewisham Council uses, which is why the proposed elevation is drawn with the neighbours on it.

Digging under a Catford house is a structural question before a planning one. Where the project also touches house extension drawings for SE6 properties or architectural drawings, the same measured survey of the Catford property carries across — you pay for the survey once, not per application.

What the Catford drawing pack contains

Here is what a SE6 instruction actually produces.

• site location plan for the Catford property
• block plan
• existing and proposed floor plans
• existing and proposed elevations
• Design & Access Statement

Streets and landmarks we survey around Catford

• Brownhill Road — frontages visible from the highway, so Blackheath materials detail governs the Brownhill Road elevation.
• Hither Green — frontages visible from the highway, so Blackheath materials detail governs the Hither Green elevation.
• Forest Hill — front-to-back level changes that drive the Forest Hill section drawings.
• South Circular Road — front-to-back level changes that drive the South Circular Road section drawings.
• Mountsfield Park — side returns where the 45-degree amenity test decides how far a Mountsfield Park extension goes.
• Catford Cat — it anchors the Catford streetscape argument in an officer report.
• St Dunstan's College — it fixes the local datum a Catford roof extension is judged against.
• Conisborough College — proposals within its setting are drawn with the context elevation included.
• Ladywell Fields — schemes visible from it get closer scrutiny in Lewisham.

Getting to a Catford survey

Surveyors travel to SE6 addresses from the studio; the nearest stations are Catford, Catford Bridge, Kentish Town, Blackfriars. Appointments are booked in Catford on weekdays and Saturdays, and the measured survey of a standard 1930s semi-detached takes two to three hours.

Where Catford sits

on Ordnance Survey grid reference TQ385735. Lewisham Council checks the Catford location plan against that reference before registering it. Source.

Practical detail for a Catford submission: Catford and Catford Bridge and Kentish Town and Blackfriars put Catford within easy reach; Royal Mail routes it as LONDON; dialling code 020. Site plans are drawn to the address as Lewisham Council holds it.

Catford postcode coverage

Across SE6 (Catford / Bellingham), which Catford holds on its own the survey is the same; the Lewisham policy overlay is not, and Lewisham Council validates on the address.

Streets and stations in Catford

Around Catford that means Brownhill Road, Hither Green, Forest Hill, South Circular Road and Mountsfield Park. most Catford sites are within walking distance of Catford or Catford Bridge or Kentish Town.

Areas we cover around Catford

Our patch runs Chislehurst (BR7), Bickley (BR1), Orpington (BR5, BR6), Petts Wood (BR5), West Wickham (BR4), Biggin Hill (TN16), with Catford at its centre.

The fee follows the building. On Catford stock that means party walls, levels, and the Blackheath heritage question.

Statutory application fees are set by regulation, not by the council: £548 householder, £610 for a new dwelling, £274 for a lawful development certificate, £249 for prior approval.

On a SE6 submission the statutory fee goes straight to London Borough of Lewisham. London planning approval-rate dataset · Lewisham planning · our London planning permission service · planning permission in Chislehurst.

The technologist drawing your Catford scheme is MCIAT chartered — the professional body for technical design and building-regulations competence. When a Catford case could go either way we pay for Lewisham Council pre-application advice rather than test it live.

Drawings are produced by chartered members of the Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists (MCIAT), the professional body for technical design and building-regulations competence. First-time approval across our London caseload is 98%. Statutory fees shown are those in force in England in 2026 under the Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications) Regulations. Confirm your local authority at gov.uk and submission requirements on the Planning Portal. Studio: 71–75 Shelton Street, London WC2H 9JQ.

We can usually confirm the Catford planning route from the address alone. This Catford page was reviewed in August 2026.