Broadstone built three times over
Broadstone's 2018 neighbourhood plan splits the village's postwar growth into three waves, and each left a different kind of garage behind.
The first came in the 1950s and early 1960s: bungalow estates such as Fairview off Higher Blandford Road, Church Farm between Clarendon and Springdale Roads, and Fontmell Road. Small plots, low front walls and short drives up to the garage. A short drive may not hold a modern car clear of the pavement, so here the garage can matter more than it looks.
The second, from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s, pushed West Way south with detached houses planned around the car. Many have since had their front gardens paved for parking, which the plan blames for run-off in heavy rain around Greenhayes. The third, Edwina Drive and Pine Springs, was finished by the mid-1990s on tighter plots and narrower roads.
The 2023 Broadstone design guide describes a suburban estate type, with Lytchett Drive, Sandford Way and Tadden Walk as examples, where garages are often built into the house or grouped in courts at the back. The guide covers new housing only, so it doesn't rule on your own garage.
Choosing a conversion for a Poole house
Each type links to a full guide.
Integral garage. The built-in kind found on estate houses. If yours was built under an estate permission, get a copy from the council and look for a condition taking away the right to convert.
Bedroom. On the harbour edge at Hamworthy, the Quay or Sandbanks, see the flood map first. A bedroom is the room you least want lowest.
Single garage. Typical of the 1950s bungalow estates. Work out where the car goes first, because behind a low wall the answer may be the road.
Read our full guide: Single Garage Conversion: What Is Involved and What to Budget For →
Home office. A good fit for a detached West Way house that already parks on the drive.
Utility or playroom. Often the sensible choice in a flood warning area, since a washing machine or toys cope with water better than a bed. A utility room needs extract ventilation.
Double garage. Most likely on a big detached plot. Sandbanks' design policy asks development to provide off-street parking, so work out where the cars will go before you lose both doors.
Detached garage. As a household studio or office it stays part of the home. As a separate home it needs planning permission whoever lives there, and the heathland and harbour rules apply.
Gym or studio. Rubber flooring over a slab still needs the membrane underneath. On a tight Edwina Drive plot, think about noise next door.
Planning and building control. Planning turns on the new front wall, the house's planning history and any conservation area. Building control covers everything from footing to vents.
Cost and value. We publish no Poole prices. A raised floor near the harbour or a gas membrane over made ground moves the figure, so compare three quotes line by line.
Sandbanks, Hamworthy and a room at ground level
The Environment Agency names Hamworthy Park, Lower Hamworthy and the Quay up to Hunger Hill, and roads on Sandbanks, in its harbour flood warning areas. For new homes at risk, its advice is to put vulnerable uses upstairs where floors can't be raised far enough. A garage conversion isn't a new home, but a bedroom in a low garage is the use that advice worries about.
Sandbanks has a further problem. Its neighbourhood plan notes that the one road to the mainland is the only way out in a flood. A spare bedroom upstairs and a study in the garage may suit a harbour-side house better than the other way round.
Frontages in Branksome Park and the conservation areas
In Poole's 16 conservation areas, Canford Cliffs Village and Evening Hill among them, BCP says less minor work is allowed without permission. A wall and window in place of the garage door changes the front, so talk to the planners before ordering bricks.
Branksome Park adds one more layer. Its Article 4 direction, in force since 1993, needs permission for any new or altered gate, wall or enclosure on the road frontage. Widening an entrance to park in front of the old garage counts.
Under the old slab
BCP has its own building control team. Its approval is normally needed, and the work starts at the bottom. The old slab can stay as a base, but it needs a new membrane and insulation on top. The wall that fills the door opening may need a foundation of its own, and any masonry below ground has to resist frost and sulphates.
Parkstone is where the clay pits were, and the British Geological Survey says most have been filled. Where filled or contaminated ground gives off gas, the Portal says the floor needs a gas membrane and the gas must be vented. Near the old workings, raise it with your surveyor early, and check the address on the UKradon map.
For purge ventilation, a window opening past 30 degrees needs an opening area of a twentieth of the floor, or a tenth between 15 and 30 degrees. Keep the completion certificate with the deeds.
Where these facts come from
- Broadstone Neighbourhood Plan (2018)
- Broadstone Residential Design Guide and Codes (2023)
- Sandbanks Peninsula Neighbourhood Plan 2023 to 2033
- BCP Council: local plan for the Poole area and Article 4 directions
- BCP Council: conservation areas
- BCP Council: building control
- GOV.UK: flood risk assessment standing advice
- Environment Agency: Poole Harbour at West Quay and Lower Hamworthy Quay
- Environment Agency: Poole Harbour at the Town Quay (incl. Sandbanks roads)
- Planning Portal: garage conversion, planning permission
- Planning Portal: garage conversion, building regulations
- Planning Portal: garage conversion flooring
- Planning Portal: in-filling the garage door
- Planning Portal: garage conversion ventilation
- GOV.UK: permeable surfacing of front gardens
- BGS Lexicon: Parkstone Clay Member
- Dorset Heathlands Planning Framework 2020 to 2025 SPD
- Dorset Council: nutrient neutrality in Poole Harbour
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Questions people in Poole ask
We're in one of the 1970s houses on West Way. If the garage goes, can we pave the front for the car?
Permeable paving, or a surface draining onto the garden, needs no permission. A solid surface over 5 square metres running onto the road does. Given the run-off around Greenhayes, choose one that lets water through.
Our house on Lytchett Drive has the garage built in. Does the Broadstone design code stop us converting it?
No. The 2023 guide applies to new residential development only. National rules apply, plus any conditions on the permission your house was built under.
We live on Sandbanks in a flood warning area. Is the garage a sensible place for my father's bedroom?
Think hard first. The Environment Agency's flood advice favours vulnerable uses upstairs, and the one road off the peninsula is also the only route out in a flood.
Can our daughter live in the detached garage as her own flat?
Not without planning permission. A separate home needs consent whoever lives in it. Within 400 metres of protected heathland the Dorset framework doesn't allow a new self-contained unit, and in the Poole Harbour catchment new overnight accommodation has to be nutrient neutral.