Say hypothetically I object to this and my objection is upheld and they then come back with some different plans that are worse and they get through as they've addressed all the points I raise I end up in an even worse position
After a bit of help here from any surveyors/experienced planning type bods.
Next door was sold stupidly cheaply about 6 months ago (old dear moving into retirement flat) and I knew it had been bought by an investor and so
yesterday I received the dreaded planning notification from the local council.
The owner (never met Mr Haghigh) has never lived at the property (rented to some chinese students who I've also never met) and is obviously just
making some money.
I have viewed and got copies of the plans (available online from local council) and apart from having an obvious vested interest/being against the
proposal I do have some genuine concerns. I'm after some peeps to take a look at said plans and provide me with some valid, unbiased,
'council planning speak' arguements I can put forward in my objection letter (due by 20th this month). I also plan to rally the local
neighbours and provide letters making it easy for them to object on the same grounds to add some weight.
So is anyone able to help?
cheers,
Ned.
ps I have now uploaded some cropped down copies of the plans here:
http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/photos.php?action=gal&user=ned&folder=planning
pps on the plan I am no.13, the one with the garage on the elevation/photo.
ppps
I know I am not going to be overlooked and appreciate they are going to puit 2x very small off street parking spaces in, but parking is already a
problem in my road and I don't think 2 small space for 3x properties will be enough.
My other concern is size/impact of 3x properties onthe space of the existing 1x not being in keeping with the area and making a very high
density/close proximity of properties.
The only other issue worth mentioning is that there is a similar development already gone in further up the road albeit ona larger side garden plot
and as a detached property consisting of 2x flats.
[Edited on 1/6/07 by ned]
my local council wont let you build or exstend a house if its not in keeping with the other houses, ie. diferent shape, further forward further back
from the road etc.
you also can not put flats with detached houses eg convert them.
but thats local to me
parking might also be a problem, for you.
It happens where I live all the time, old person moves out of old bugalow and a developer put 2/3 houses or sometimes flats in its place. Without knowing more It's difficult to suggest what to try.
No help I'm afraid, I just posted to wish you luck.
Probably sounds odd (or old fashioned?) but I almost wouldn't mind quite so much if I'd at least met the chap or he'd come round to
tell me/ask my opinion prior to putting the plans in, or offered to fix my front wall or driveway or something to appease/get me on side but I've
never even met him and it's obviously just a money making exercise for him.
My concern is that the council have huge targets for extra homes and it will be hard to stop it happening.
Ned.
my old house in swineshead i sold to a developer who knocked down my house and is currently building 14 (yes 14) on the old site, i havent a clue how
there going to get them all in, it took him 4 years to get the plans passed
must be who you know than what you know.
Well that's the other issue, could it get worse?
Say hypothetically I object to this and my objection is upheld and they then come back with some different plans that are worse and they get through
as they've addressed all the points I raise I end up in an even worse position
The planning process is a war of attrition. most developers shoot high with the first set of plans expecting them not to get through. If you object they will resubmit again and again. round here they even now submit most plans during the holidays or high summer when they get less opposition. you need a group of people to successfully object, otherwise youll look like a nutter and be ignored.
To be honest, it doesn't look like a bad development. Perhaps if they put in more off road parking spaces, it won't be a problem.
My brother-in-law recently stood down from his local council. He reviewed several plans where a detatched house with long garden was demolished and a
STREET of houses built on the plot. This was happening more and more but without changes to the local infrastructure (roads mainly). Locals were
starting to complain bitterly.
You can't object to people making money, what you can do it try to limit or improve the development.
The truth is that we are desparatly short of housing, particulary in the south east. More homes need to be built to meet demand and in-town
development is favoured by planners. They have government imposed targets to meet and so they like schemes like this.
All you need to do is find some very rare species of plants/animals/reptiles eg. greater crested newt, put them in the area where the exstention is to
be built and then inform the enviroment officer of your local authority! usually causes a stir! Bats and Barn Owls are always a good one. The only
problem is they are protected for a reason! (there pretty uncommon!)
Another thing to do is to get everyone in the area on your side and then get them to object to the P/P due to access and parking reasons. If enough
people object then it tends to stall things a bit. Sadly developers generally have alot of money and tend to be able to buy thier way into these
things.
If yo can't beat them, join them. Your garage and the path at the side of your house is wide enough to get a 2 bed house in, if you build right
up to yours. Make it gable fronted, build it in the same style as yours and sell it off.
£60,000 build cost. £180,000 sale price (more in your area?) = 200% profit in under a year. Better still, sell both houses and buy something better
elsewhere.
Ned
Wish you all luck with this but not optimistic. This is happening all over Kent older larger houses being demolished and 3 put in their place, without
any thought being given to things like water supply, medical facilities or schools. The prevailing attitude seems to be that it's immoral to have
a large garden when you can put tacky little houses on it to accommodate asylum seekers.
Plannng permission can be fought but it ends up on John Prescott's desk where the decision of the planning committee is overruled in favour of
building more houses.
As I say good luck, hope you find some persusive objection.
This did very very briefly cross my mind but the loan to value I currently have after buying out my ex-partner last year means I'd be able to
stump up zero capital to do so. I also get on with my neighbours and wouldn't really want to wee tehm off or have to move.
Ned.
You'll struggle to object successfully to that I'm afraid Unless any of the trees have (or could get) protection orders there isn't
realy anything to object to tbh - you could give extra vehicular traffic in an already congested area a go and try and get them to commision traffic
surveys and the like - but I suspect you'll just be delaying the inevitable.
I know it doesn't help you, but I've seen FAR worse.......
It might be worth going to your planning office, speaking to a planner, and ask for advice about what sort of objections might be upheld. In my
experience they are quite helpful.
Cheers
Mark
quote:
Originally posted by Macbeast
The prevailing attitude seems to be that it's immoral to have a large garden when you can put tacky little houses on it.
quote:
to accommodate asylum seekers.
If the site became contaminated with say plutonium or suchlike this may help.Local planners are a bunch of blind idiots as i found out when my
neighbour developed.Make sure you get as much support as you can and give them hell.I sympathise completely and wish you luck.
Backhanding barstewards
Hi Ned
I assume parking is currently on street for that house? If so, its worth pointing out in your argument that by putting in parking spaces they are
effectively only creating one additional parking space because the driveway itself means there's at least one less space on the road to park, and
also those cars would need to reverse out onto the street to exit (something my local council don't like)
The district council may well refuse it permission on something like that, but the problem is that there's a way around it if you're on an
unclassified road, because even though if you put it on plans it gets considered as part of the application and can be rejected on that basis, you
dont actually need planning permission to put in a driveway onto your property, you just fill in a form with the COUNTY council and after a
consultation (to check for utilities underneath etc) you cough up the money to get the kerb dropped.
This is exactly what we've done, we submitted a planning application for an extension with a garage, and included a driveway on the plans onto
our property. Our side of the road does get used for parking and the planning office refused the application on the grounds of diminished on street
parking and no ability to turn around and enter / exit the property in a forward gear (highly ironic considering it would be a BEC with no reverse box
going in the garage!
).
We didnt know about the unclassified road / county council drive thing at the time, but once we found that out we just applied for a drop curb and had
it installed within a few weeks, so now we're just going to submit revised plans with the garage going onto an existing driveway! Even if we get
refused again we wanted the driveway anyway so not too much lost.
Have you got a link to the actual online planning application btw?
quote:
"All you need to do is find some very rare species of plants/animals/reptiles eg. greater crested newt, put them in the area where the exstention
is to be built and then inform the enviroment officer of your local authority! usually causes a stir! Bats and Barn Owls are always a good one. The
only problem is they are protected for a reason! (there pretty uncommon!) "
WHAT ever you do, do not do this!!!! YOU could end up with a very large fine or inprisonment 
also the planning office would still be able
to grant planning as they are not indiginous.
I work for a very large developer (1000 houses plus per development and the way planning goes now adays there may be little you can do to prevent it
happening.
one thing you could try to make it take longer and be more costly for the developer is to ask for details if how they propose to retain the house
which sits higher than your property.
you could also object due to hard landscaping in the garden an the possibility that the water run off might flood you house.
is the local drainage able to support the new development.
parking in the area is a problem and so use that one. :sorry i cant be of more hope or help.
Ditch
Dammit! Knew I should have bought that house!
Missed an opportunity there!
Make money... and wee Ned off too all in one go!
Blast!
Guess that one opposite you might be used by developers too.... only say that as it was snapped up pretty quickly.... even though it clarly had
subsidence!
Cheers,
James
Met the neighbours of the one opposite yesterday James, they completed weds. Couple with a kid and their survey said no subsidence, just repointing
and a few other bits required, they're about for a couple of weeks to get it habitable then moving in!
Ned.
Oh ok. Good.
Out of interest, any idea how much it went for?
Just having the same issue myself. local people are all trying to build on any spare space , my neighbor decided to build on his corner plot.I
objected due to ovelooking ,overdevelopment, parking and drainage issues. The plans were thrown out by my local council, but on appeal to sec of state
were passed, and the submited plan on the council web site appears to have changed some of the parking details, although it is supposed to be the
original plan submitted . I know it isnt and now need to find out why and how it has changed but suspect im too late.
Paul.
Well for anyone who remembers this post or even cares, I got my letter through this morning to say that the proposal was rejected. I am a happy boy
for now, though I believe there is probably some appeal process an even pending that expect they'll try again with a different proposal to try
and get round the 5 grounds for refusal. I got 13 objection letters in from speaking to my neighbours and there were another 10 from other locals, so
23 objections in total
Nice to know that this time at least the system seems to work
Ned.
[Edited on 9/7/07 by ned]
It's a problem all over the country but some places it is worse than others. BBC article tells how it affects an area. It's happening round here in the more desirable areas where some houses have upwards of an acre of garden but all new builds have to have provision for two vehicles under local planning rules.
It is a real shame that these "planners" are not more sympethetic to the folk that have to live with some of the dreadfull buildings that
pop up,
But it is a matter of fact that in any buisness, money changes hands, to allow dodgy dealings, one of which is the planned Fire station, that once
built will be less than 50 metres from my back gate
Yet 10 years ago, the land could not be built on as it was "a designated nature reserve"and had a 50 year exlusion put on It by the previous
owner,
so someone in my local council, will make thousands in a back hander, and sod it, to nature, and all my neighbours ?
[Edited on 9/7/07 by steve m]
quote:
Originally posted by ned
Well for anyone who remembers this post or even cares, I got my letter through this morning to say that the proposal was rejected.