planning refused for garage due to potential impact to tree

[N24]

Venom said:

blueg33 said:

We need to see drawings and pics of the street to comment

Trust me, planning is a lottery. I hate it. Just had a major application 90 units deferred on the day of committee because the planning admin team "forgot" to properly consult highways. Cost to my business circa £250k, cost to public purse of the delay at least £128k.

Had a similar one recently - monthly delays cost us £330k, eventually got permission 6 months after statutory target date with very little input from us other than answering questions to which the detail should have been obvious from our original submission. Sadly, with government cuts there are now fewer and fewer competent, experienced planners working for local authorities, most decent ones upped and left for the private sector.

Back to the OP, design is very subjective. If you feel strongly enough that the Council's reasons for refusal are weak, you can appeal to the Planning Inspectorate. You can do this by the 'written reps' process, filling in forms online and paying a small fee. It takes a while though, due to the sheer number of applications for appeal in the system. You'd need to be able to clearly articulate why you consider that the garage would not be out of character or harmful to the street scene. Focus on things like scale, use of materials compared with things around you, loss of light or not, as the case may be, and what you can do to soften the impact - plant a nice hedge between it and the road/neighbours, for example.

Perfect! That should all be ok, it wont affect anyones light, it'll be hidden by shrubbery on all sides except garage doors - which open onto my drive & not visible from road or neighbours.

[N24]

bimsb6 said:

N24 said:

Used the specialist recommended - good call - thanks!

So now the tree has been condemned as it has a massive dose of fungal rot - roots & trunk up to 3m high is hollow/like balsa. Shame as it's a beautiful tree.


thanks!

That should please your neighbours ! Presumably they will now have to have it felled?

Funnily enough they were overjoyed as theyve been trying to fell the tree for over 20 years, but not bothered with a survey. However they've dont nothing about it & I'm a touch concerned it could keel over onto my house during a storm - it's a 40m high beech so pretty substantial.

[Wacky Racer]

A friend of mine in Malta who owns an expensive villa had trouble with his neighbour's tree continually shedding leaves into his 60 foot outdoor heated swimming pool.

It used to take him nearly an hour a DAY to fish them out with a net. Good job he was retired.

At first, the neighbour (who agreed it was a nuisance) agreed to cut the offending branches off, but three or four years ago, they had a fall out and he said he would not cut the branches at all. (Just to spite my friend).

Now the tree has "mysteriously" died...

A little salt goes a long way.

[bimsb6]

N24 said:

Funnily enough they were overjoyed as theyve been trying to fell the tree for over 20 years, but not bothered with a survey. However they've dont nothing about it & I'm a touch concerned it could keel over onto my house during a storm - it's a 40m high beech so pretty substantial.

Time to buy a wood burning stove then !

[N24]

Totally! I have two Morso's & didn't order any logs this year in the hope that this beech can be used for winter 2017!

The hopefully substantial log pile should also add to the screening effect against the two gable ends of the garage!