This site comes with planning permission to build a detached house, but is it suitable for the Pilchers’ living and working needs? Mike Dade takes a closer look

Mike Dade

PLOT WATCH: Mike Dade investigates

WHO Andy and Kim Pilcher

WHAT A site with outline planning permission to demolish the three garages currently there and build a detached house in their place

WHERE Wiltshire

Andy and Kim Pilcher are looking to self-build somewhere in or around their local town. They have a limited budget, but are keen to create a house with an open-plan layout so they can live and, as artists, work from home. The property needs three bedrooms and, ideally, enough garden space to grow fruit and vegetables. They’ve spotted a reasonably priced plot that comes with outline permission for a detached house. It’s positioned just outside the centre of the town in a residential area. Could it be a good fit for their needs?

Plot & planning

The site currently has three lock-up garages on it and is situated between a pair of semidetached houses on one side and a terrace of attractive Victorian properties on the other. It’s a quiet residential no-through road; opposite the plot is undeveloped woodland that slopes down to a railway station about 80m away.