Council "insiders" and planning permission

[freddyuk]

We have discovered that a house at the end of our road (the corner plot

has been bought by a local counciller. We also know in the past the have used their contacts in the council to get round the planning law which apply to Joe public so we are concerned that an extension i about to be built and will detract from our road frontage and devalu all the properties in our road. What options do we have to prevent building going ahead on the basi that Travellers and the like have regularly obtained retrospectiv planning. We are determined to catch this early as we reckon that once wor starts they will get away with it!

Not strictly a DIY subject but a guess many on this board will hav come across planning issues??

Thanks for any ideas.

Fredd

-- freddyuk

[Christian McArdle]

Firstly, keep going to the council offices and look at the notice board installed in the locked broom cupboard. Also, if your council has a decent website, they often publish all applications on there.

As soon as you notice work that requires permission commence, immediately contact the council if you haven't seen an application go in.

Christian.

[Dave Fawthrop]

| | We have discovered that a house at the end of our road (the corner plot) | has been bought by a local counciller. We also know in the past they | have used their contacts in the council to get round the planning laws | which apply to Joe public so we are concerned that an extension is | about to be built and will detract from our road frontage and devalue | all the properties in our road. | What options do we have to prevent building going ahead on the basis | that Travellers and the like have regularly obtained retrospective | planning. | We are determined to catch this early as we reckon that once work | starts they will get away with it! | | Not strictly a DIY subject but a guess many on this board will have | come across planning issues?? | | Thanks for any ideas.

All planning applications are advertised, in outline, on little yellow boards, which tell you to go to the planning department to see full details, you have ??? days to object. I have done this and it works fine. Keep your eyes open.

[Owain]

You can object only on valid planning grounds. Devaluation of neighbouring properties is not a valid planning ground.

"Detracting from your road frontage" might not be; it depends what you really mean. Protruding in front of the building line, or filling in the gap between the building to create the appearance of a terrace, are AFAIK valid grounds. Normally in the latter the council would require the extension to be set back from the original building.

Owain

[Mike Barnes]

Does anyone from the council check that such notices remain in place for the period required? It seems simple and effective for the applicant to remove it as soon as it appears.

[:::Jerry::::]

they

devalue

I suspect most do nothing if the sort, all they do is work within the system, in other words they do nothing more than anyone who 'knows' planning law could.

[Cicero]

===================== If you believe that a Councillor is abusing his position you might have a case for the Local Government Ombudsman.

Look here:

[Brian Sharrock]

Unfortunately not all work requires planning permission. A property has an inherent right to 'permitted development', this may include, but not be limited to, a loft conversion, an extension, a garage, etc. etc. Although permitted development must adhere to the Building Regulations and the BCO must have been notified of the intended work -and will inspect the work at various stages - You will not have been informed that it will be carried out.

[Dave Fawthrop]

| In uk.d-i-y, Dave Fawthrop wrote: | >All planning applications are advertised, in outline, on little yellow | >boards, which tell you to go to the planning department to see full | >details, you have ??? days to object. | | Does anyone from the council check that such notices remain in place for | the period required? It seems simple and effective for the applicant to | remove it as soon as it appears.

Another conspiracy theory. Have you been abducted by aliens recently?

[Mike Barnes]

[Rick]

Do your homework VERY throughley, and write an article for the local paper.

Alternativly the local paper may do the homework for you, if you set them off in the right direction.

Rick

[Christian McArdle]

But permitted development rights are quite limited to the front elevation of a property.

Christian.

[Ian White]

That's a very good point. The company wanting to "develop" the field out back of us ran rings around the neighbours who objected, simply because we were all first-timers.

Nothing illegal was done, but discretion was used in an area where arguably it shouldn't have been... and by the time we found this out, it was too late.

[Brian Sharrock]

I'll _respectfully_ suggest that you don't know what you're talking about. The 'front elevation' essentially can't be changed without 'planning permission' - but - other things being equal PD will permit one to add a large volume to the rear of a house - that's _not_ "limited to the front elevation " I would recommend that you familiarise with the legislation ... many D_I_Y manuals have helpful isometrics of what's permitted and not. Unless you're not intending to mean what you've written.

[Grunff]

Nothing unfortunate about it.

[sm_jamieson]

You can add a porch to the front of a house without planning permission usually, if it's within a certain size, 3m2 foor area if I recall correctly. Simon.

[Christian McArdle]

I think you took "limited" in the wrong sense.

Perhaps if I reorder the sentence to remove the ambiguity (although the word "quite" actually precludes your interpretation).

"permitted development rights to the front elevation are quite limited"

Christian.

[Christian McArdle]

That depends on the taste of your neighbours. I think some things should be tightened up. Stone cladding a terraced house should have a fixed penalty applied, such as genital mutilation and forfeiture of the property. I think that would be proportionate.

Christian.

[hemulen27]

Um, I don't mean to shove my oar in where it's not wanted but I read Christian's post as saying that the type of work allowed to the front elevation of a building under permitted development was "quite limited"

- that is, most changes to the front of a building *would* require planning permisson - rather than permitted development *being limited to* work on the front elevation, which is what I think you're saying. So I think you're actually agreeing with each other....Pardon me if I've got the wrong end of the stick, though!

[freddyuk]

We have noticed that they have started to dig out drains so they wil not be under the new building so we are definitely on the right track. The extension would affect the front elevation which is on the mai road and the side elevation which is our road. My opinion is that b developing the "open space" on the corner plot results in the entranc to the road being narrowed and will affect the values of all th properties in that road. Is that grounds for complaint ? or will th council give us the brush off.

We cant complain about drains being dug out !! Yet!

-- freddyuk