Informal Planning Advice prior to Complaint?

[youngsyr]

Equus said:

youngsyr said:

Thanks Equus, that immediately gets my back up though...

I'll try to read on with the rest when I've calmed down a bit!

That's just the way it is, I'm afraid.

We get to represent people on both sides of the fence, so we have to be able to sympathise with both perspectives, but in any case it's about what is applicable and enforceable under Planning Law, which is probably a lot more limited than you think.

One basic point that most people can't - or won't - grasp is that development which lacks Planning Permission is not in and of itself illegal: it is unauthorized, but it doesn't become illegal until it has both been assessed as being unacceptable in nature and some form of legal Notice or Order has been served against it.

The Law has to be seen to be fair, equitable and even-handed to all, and yes, unfortunately that means that 'offenders' must be given every opportunity to defend themselves.

I can understand that, but what makes it hard for me to take is that a couple of years ago we decided to have a loft extension, so we spoke to architects and builders to understand what would and wouldn't be allowed under permitted development, drew up some plans and then voluntarily submitted them for a lawful development certificate.

As you know, for permitted development you don't need planning permission - it is simply permitted.

When we submitted our plans, they were rejected for the certificate, much to our surprise. On speaking to the the planning officer, the proposed drawing had the existing chimney shown slightly shorter than the existing drawing and they inferred from this that we were looking to raise the roof line, which we had no intention of doing as we knew it wouldn't be allowed under permitted development.

There were no measurements for the roof line or chimney and no indication anywhere that we were looking to raise the roof line and even if you took the drawing at litreral face value, it made it look like the roof line would only be raised a matter of inches.

However, purely on that basis, our plans were rejected. No consultation, no would you like to amend and resubmit, simply rejected - start the whole process again and resumbmit an entire new application.

We obviously sucked it up - by the letter of the rules, they were right - our architect had made a mistake that could be interpreted to break the rules, even though we had no intention of doing so and the infraction would be negligble. We resubmitted, waited out the delay and got on with it.

So hopefully that gives you some context - we tried to do everything right with our extension, going above and beyond what was required and were held to the absolute letter of the rules.

Next door didn't even consider the planning rules, went ahead and built an eyesore despite our objections and us pointing out to them that planning permission was required. They only submitted retrospectively when told they had to by the planning officer, cocked up the first application, submitted an unacceptable second application and then changed it without resubmitting or notifying their neighbours and objectors.

I totally agree that everyone should be treated fairly, but can't help but feel aggrieved at how this has played out.

Anyway, sorry for the rant and thanks for your insight - I appreciate it.

[youngsyr]

I wrote to the planning department on the 1st (I live a very exciting life!) and they responded by email that the deadline on the planning permission had been deemed impractical and that deadline has been extended to the end of this month.

It's now the 14th of the month and no work has started. If we get to the end of the month and they haven't started on the partition, what should I do - just write another letter?

[youngsyr]

Equus said:

youngsyr said:

If we get to the end of the month and they haven't started on the partition, what should I do - just write another letter?

Yes.

And take a chill pill. Planning enforcement takes its own sweet time.

It's the afternoon of 31 Jan and still no sign of work starting on the partition. It's now 6 weeks from the original deadline and more than one week after the extended deadline.

I've sent an email to the planning department, any idea what the next steps will be - another month's grace to get it sorted?

[youngsyr]

desolate said:

youngsyr said:

It's the afternoon of 31 Jan and still no sign of work starting on the partition. It's now 6 weeks from the original deadline and more than one week after the extended deadline.

I've sent an email to the planning department, any idea what the next steps will be - another month's grace to get it sorted?

I really think you are pissing in the wind now it's been approved.

I know I can't stop them putting it up now, I just want them to get on and do it.