Design and Access Statement?

Below is a draft Design and Access Statement (DAS) to accompany our planning application.  It now appears we may not be required to submit one as the regulations have changed since the guidance I've been using was issued.  If nothing else I hope it provides a pretty good summing up of our plans and the reasoning behind them.

The property is in an Area Of Outstanding Natural Beauty which used to require a DAS for householder applications, but now it's unclear.  I'm sure the planning officer I'm meeting tomorrow will be able to tell me.  In any case, our project is unusual compared to standard applications for building an extension so it may help to submit the DAS by way of explanation.  Any comments from anyone used to dealing with things very gratefully received!  I'm sure it's too long for starters, despite a fair bit of editing down.

No more pink

I'm feeling very fuzzy headed but pleased, having just finished extensive 'artists impression' of the bungalow design and its position in the street, mostly to show neighbours when we go to talk to them about our plans this week, but it might help planning application too (to illustrate the proper plans).  This is a north elevation image capture (without the front garden and street) from the 3D model.

After a gentle nudge in the right direction from Kuba (designer) we've decided to go with plain lime render for the exterior of the strawbale sections, and are hoping the planners go for it.  We think it looks a darn site better than any 'brick-coloured' pinkish paint.  The render we're likely to use is a lime render made up using crushed recycled glass instead of sand, which we like the look of.  Much less energy is needed to collect and crush glass bottles than to extract new sand for use in the render.

I'm taking the plans and my Sketchup file/image captures to see the planning officer on Friday, hopefully (touch wood, if they don't want us to change too much) it'll be the last face to face with them before actually submitting planning application soon.  Just a few details to sort now...

Colouring

We're finally nearly there with the plans for planning permission.  I think I had in mind that this stage of the planning would be the simplest, perhaps because the fee for planning permission drawings is much less than that for building regulation approval drawings and construction drawings, as befits the fact that so much more detail is required at the building regs stage.  But so many details have to be thought about now that affect the overall design: details about what heat source we're using for example, along with what kind of chimney or flue it requires, where we want it to be and whether it can use an existing chimney or needs a new one built.  Although this doesn't need to be shown on planning permission drawings (which are concerned primarily with the external appearance of the building, and overall layout) it has to be resolved now - otherwise we may find further down the line that we need to change the layout somewhere, which could affect the external appearance and so require a revision to our application.  In short, planning officers don't need to know how we're providing heating, but they need to know where chimneys will or won't project from the building...  Also, although full building regulations submission comes later (if planning permission is granted) it is essential to make sure planned layout and use of space will comply now, to avoid having to make costly changes to plans later on.