Party Wall Surveyor Paddington

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The planning authority changed on 10 August 2026

Most Paddington addresses remain within Westminster’s planning service, but the district name is no longer enough to identify the decision-maker at its eastern edge. Westminster’s transition FAQ says the Oxford Street Development Corporation became the local planning authority for sites inside the Oxford Street Mayoral Development Area on 10 August 2026.

The official OSDC boundary map reaches Marble Arch at its western end. It does not extend west to Paddington Station or Paddington Basin. That means the station, basin, Paddington Green and the main residential areas around them are outside the OSDC polygon. A property described broadly as Paddington or the Hyde Park Estate near Marble Arch should nevertheless be checked against the polygon by exact address rather than inferred from a postcode or marketing label.

Inside the polygon, OSDC is responsible for planning applications, transferred cases and enforcement. Westminster remains responsible for Local Land Charges for Westminster properties. Outside it, Westminster remains the local planning authority. The Westminster Party Wall guide covers the council-wide context, while the West London Party Wall guide places Paddington in the wider sub-region.

This authority change does not alter Party Wall rights. It changes where a planning application is submitted and who determines it.

The same adopted policies continue inside the OSDC area

The OSDC FAQ says the corporation uses Westminster’s development plan and supplementary planning documents to determine applications transferred from Westminster. The current Westminster City Plan was adopted on 21 January 2026. Westminster’s archive page expressly says that the 2021 version was superseded that day and should not be used to determine applications.

That distinction matters because search results, planning reports and consultant notes can still quote the 2021 plan. For a current proposal, cite the 2026 City Plan and its current policy numbering. The planning authority may be OSDC for an address in the polygon, but that does not make Westminster’s adopted development plan disappear.

The Paddington Place Plan has another status. The council calls it an evolving place-shaping plan intended to deliver the Paddington Opportunity Area and North West Economic Development Area policies. It should not be described as a made neighbourhood plan or as a replacement for the City Plan.

Hyde Park and Paddington has a designated neighbourhood forum, but forum designation is not plan adoption. The council’s current development-plan page lists nine made neighbourhood plans and does not include Hyde Park and Paddington. A forum draft or project page should not be promoted to adopted policy without the referendum and formal-making record.

Policy 50 sets the current basement dimensions

Westminster City Plan Policy 50 supports basement development only where its detailed criteria are satisfied. Among them:

• no more than 50 per cent of the garden land should be beneath the basement;
• on a small site where the garden is eight metres or shorter at its longest point, the basement may extend up to four metres from the original building in that direction;
• a margin of undeveloped garden land proportionate to the development and garden must remain around the entire site boundary;
• the basement should not normally be more than one storey below the lowest original floor level, with a stated possible exception for accessible large sites; and
• there must be at least one metre of soil plus a minimum 200-millimetre drainage layer above the basement.

Where a vault extends under an adjacent highway, Policy 50 also sets a maximum encroachment of 1.8 metres and a minimum vertical depth of 900 millimetres between the highway surface and vault structure. This highway rule is not a Party Wall distance test.

Paragraph 50.2 says a basement application should be accompanied by a structural methodology statement and appropriate self-certification from a suitably qualified engineer. Paragraph 50.4 strongly encourages applicants to consult neighbouring occupiers before submitting the application and says evidence of engagement may be requested.

Early discussion is sensible, but it is not service of notice. A structural methodology statement is not an award. Planning approval does not confer Party Wall rights, and written consent to a Party Wall notice does not grant planning permission.

Conservation records use several Paddington-area names

Westminster’s current conservation-document index publishes separate maps and documents for Paddington Green and Westbourne. Its A-to-K index separately covers Bayswater. The Paddington Green audit records adoption as Supplementary Planning Guidance on 16 April 2003, while the Bayswater audit was adopted in 2000.

Those dates require context. Westminster warns on the index that adopted conservation audits and guides may cite policies predating the current framework and should be read with adopted current policy. The historical and townscape analysis can remain useful without reviving superseded UDP or City Plan provisions.

The named conservation area must come from the current map for the complete address. “Paddington conservation area” is not a safe substitute for Paddington Green, Bayswater or Westbourne, and being near the station does not prove inclusion in any one designation.

Westminster’s Article 4 directions page records a city-wide basement direction in force from 31 July 2016. It removes specified permitted-development rights; it does not ban every basement. The same page lists narrower minor-alteration directions, including one for the front garden areas of 168 to 208 even Sussex Gardens. Those additional controls depend on the exact scheduled property and work.

Test the Act independently of planning policy

Section 1 applies only where differently owned adjoining lands meet and the line of junction is unbuilt or occupied only by a boundary wall that is neither a party fence wall nor an external wall of a building. Where an owner is about to build on any part of that line, notice must be served at least one month before the described work. Without consent for a wall astride the line, the statutory alternative is a wall wholly on the building owner’s land and at that owner’s expense.

Section 2 gives specified rights relating to party structures. Where section 3 requires notice of the proposed work, the normal lead time is at least two months. Section 3(3) does not prevent exercise of a section 2 right with the written consent of the adjoining owners and adjoining occupiers, and it does not require a party-structure notice before compliance with a statutory notice about a dangerous or neglected structure.

Section 6(1) has two conditions joined by and. The building owner must propose to excavate, or excavate for and erect a building or structure, within three metres horizontally of any part of an adjoining owner’s building or structure and some part of the proposed excavation, building or structure within those three metres must extend lower than the bottom of the adjoining foundations. A four-metre planning allowance in a small garden says nothing about whether these statutory facts exist.

Section 6(2) is different. Within six metres, it asks whether any part of the proposed excavation, building or structure would meet a plane drawn downwards, in the direction of the building owner’s excavation, building or structure, at forty-five degrees to the horizontal. Its origin is the line formed by the intersection of the horizontal plane at the bottom of the adjoining foundations with the plane of the external face of the adjoining building’s external wall.

Where section 6 applies, the building owner must serve notice at least one month before beginning to excavate, or to excavate for and erect a building or structure. The notice must include plans and sections showing the excavation’s site and depth and, where a building or structure is proposed, its site. Neither Policy 50’s basement depth nor the age of a Paddington terrace proves the adjoining foundation bottom. The party wall notice guide keeps the statutory categories separate.

Assemble an address-led Paddington instruction

Start with the complete address and an authority check against the OSDC map. Record Westminster or OSDC as the current planning authority, then identify the named conservation area, Article 4 entry and any listed-building record. Add the current planning reference and state whether the cited document is adopted, emerging or an evolving place plan.

Provide existing and proposed drawings, a section through each excavation, distances to adjoining structures, known foundation information, boundary material, structural drawings and the current structural methodology statement. Identify freeholders and relevant leaseholders, particularly in mansion blocks, converted terraces and mixed-use buildings. Supply notices, attachments, responses and delivery dates if the statutory process has started.

The Party Wall surveyor cost guide explains how the number of adjoining owners, drawing quality, inspection scope, schedules, award work and later visits can alter professional scope. The Party Wall surveyor guide explains the appointment process.

FindTheSurveyor operates a neutral marketplace and does not carry out the surveying work. If a quote is presented, compare the appointing owner, included inspections and documents, exclusions, VAT treatment and basis for further work. If the administrator makes a confirmed introduction, the professional appointment and payment terms are agreed directly with the selected surveyor.

Sources checked

The official OSDC boundary PDF was visually inspected, and the linked Westminster transition FAQ, adopted City Plan, policy-status pages, conservation records, Article 4 material and sections 1 to 3 and section 6 of the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 were checked on 24 August 2026. Planning authority and mapped designations must be verified for the complete address.