Planning Permission Help
Discussion
Hopefully someone can help with my query;
I applied for planning persmission to change the entrance to my home. The formal application went in the last week of March, and the council website states the decision should be due first week of June.
On Friday last week I (or my agent) recieved an email from the council planning department, basically saying that due to recent TPO's being put on trees in my garden, they required a tree survey and method statement submitted to support the application. I emailed back saying I was not aware of any TPO's on trees, and their own website which shows TPO's did not show any trees in my garden having such.
By magic, today I recieve a letter from the council which shows TPO's were applied to certain trees on the 13th May (ie a couple of weeks ago), and up to this I genuinely had no knowledge of the fact, nor does it bother me as we took out any trees prior to submitting planning which would potentially affect the planning, just in case TPO's were sought.
My question is pretty basic;
The council is asking me to spend circa £1,250.00 undertaking surveys for something which at the time of submitting our planning application did not exists, ie the TPO's. The trees do not have any bearing on the plans, so is it reasonable for the council to ask for this, and can they legally, as I'd prefer to obviously not have the requested works done if I can avoid it.
Thanks.
I applied for planning persmission to change the entrance to my home. The formal application went in the last week of March, and the council website states the decision should be due first week of June.
On Friday last week I (or my agent) recieved an email from the council planning department, basically saying that due to recent TPO's being put on trees in my garden, they required a tree survey and method statement submitted to support the application. I emailed back saying I was not aware of any TPO's on trees, and their own website which shows TPO's did not show any trees in my garden having such.
By magic, today I recieve a letter from the council which shows TPO's were applied to certain trees on the 13th May (ie a couple of weeks ago), and up to this I genuinely had no knowledge of the fact, nor does it bother me as we took out any trees prior to submitting planning which would potentially affect the planning, just in case TPO's were sought.
My question is pretty basic;
The council is asking me to spend circa £1,250.00 undertaking surveys for something which at the time of submitting our planning application did not exists, ie the TPO's. The trees do not have any bearing on the plans, so is it reasonable for the council to ask for this, and can they legally, as I'd prefer to obviously not have the requested works done if I can avoid it.
Thanks.
Simpo Two said:
Hobo said:
due to recent TPO's being put on trees in my garden, they required a tree survey...
Didn't they do their own survey before putting the TPOs on? Or do they simply look at Google Streetview then expect the citizens to make sure they guessed right?Does your application involve the now TPO'd trees or potentially impact on their tree roots etc (redline boundary)? If not, then I would certainly push back on this as being irrelevant.
You will have a formal consultee response on this. Are you able to cut and paste the response? Presumably there has been an objection somewhere which is 'forcing' you to undertake the tree survey?
You will have a formal consultee response on this. Are you able to cut and paste the response? Presumably there has been an objection somewhere which is 'forcing' you to undertake the tree survey?
The trees are irrelevant to the application as not intending any works to or around them. We took the trees we wanted to remove prior to application.
I have had nothing from the planners aside an email which simply says along the lines of;
“As you will be aware, certain trees in your garden have recently had TPO’s applied on them as as such we require a formal tree survey and agrosomerhing method statement to support your application”
That’s literally it.
I have had nothing from the planners aside an email which simply says along the lines of;
“As you will be aware, certain trees in your garden have recently had TPO’s applied on them as as such we require a formal tree survey and agrosomerhing method statement to support your application”
That’s literally it.
Hobo said:
The trees are irrelevant to the application as not intending any works to or around them. We took the trees we wanted to remove prior to application.
I have had nothing from the planners aside an email which simply says along the lines of;
“As you will be aware, certain trees in your garden have recently had TPO’s applied on them as as such we require a formal tree survey and agrosomerhing method statement to support your application”
That’s literally it.
As above - first you need to check if the trees are within the red line boundary on your site/location plan (regardless if you think they don't impact your application)I have had nothing from the planners aside an email which simply says along the lines of;
“As you will be aware, certain trees in your garden have recently had TPO’s applied on them as as such we require a formal tree survey and agrosomerhing method statement to support your application”
That’s literally it.
Hobo said:
The trees are all within my boundary, albeit until I recieved the letter today I wouldn’t actually know which trees they were in about as the email from the planners didn’t reference which.
I think you're missing the point. Albeit to my (limited local knowledge) it does seem to vary from LA to LA, and my LA change their minds on this annually as well.Imagine you have a just under sub 0.5 hectare site and want to change your gates/access. Your red line plan would just encircle the gates/access not your 0.5 acres. If you red line the whole site then the registrars will start consultations on the whole area which will include the trees you refer to ....
Just ME
Sorry, looking again we aren’t in a conservation area, but do fall within what is a ‘Local Heritage Area’ as the house is one of 6 which are deemed of importance. The council, within its neighbourhood plan says it may try to extend the conservation area to include these 6 houses but currently has not.
^You are NOT going to win any kind of 'fight' with the planners. The planning office isn't a democracy, it's do as we say, unless you are ready to take it to a national process on challenging the decision.
Play nice and it may work out ok. If you start an argument with the planning office......Good luck, you will need it!!
Play nice and it may work out ok. If you start an argument with the planning office......Good luck, you will need it!!
gangzoom said:
^You are NOT going to win any kind of 'fight' with the planners. The planning office isn't a democracy, it's do as we say, unless you are ready to take it to a national process on challenging the decision.
Play nice and it may work out ok. If you start an argument with the planning office......Good luck, you will need it!!
I agree with this. Maybe a face to face conversation would benefit the situation. It does feel unreasonable.Play nice and it may work out ok. If you start an argument with the planning office......Good luck, you will need it!!
I had planning refused trying to replace some non-historic windows (1980s wooden double glazing) with some sash windows double glazing in a conservation area characterised with sash windows.
I tried everything and eventually went to appeal which I won. Dependent on the individual planner they certainly seem to be unmovable once they have made up their minds......
Hobo said:
The trees are irrelevant to the application as not intending any works to or around them. We took the trees we wanted to remove prior to application.
I have had nothing from the planners aside an email which simply says along the lines of;
“As you will be aware, certain trees in your garden have recently had TPO’s applied on them as as such we require a formal tree survey and agrosomerhing method statement to support your application”
That’s literally it.
As I say, I suspect it’s a relatively junior DC officer handling an otherwise straightforward application. I have had nothing from the planners aside an email which simply says along the lines of;
“As you will be aware, certain trees in your garden have recently had TPO’s applied on them as as such we require a formal tree survey and agrosomerhing method statement to support your application”
That’s literally it.
‘As such we require…’ is the default tick box answer. I’d politely go back to them pointing out that the trees don’t form any part of the works in your application save for being within the redline boundary and as such it’s unreasonable for them to ask for this. Hopefully they’ll ask a more senior colleague who’ll take a more pragmatic approach.
I take it the application has been/was validated without this survey and they’re not insisting on it before they validate it?
Emergency TPO is a standard practice and bloody annoying.
You will need to either -
challenge the TPO - you will need a tree expert to write a report.
supply the report requested - you will need a tree expert to write a report
If the application does not impact the root zone of any of the trees (typically 1.5x the crown spread) then you may be able to argue back that a report is unnecessary but the root
of least resistance is just do the survey
You will need to either -
challenge the TPO - you will need a tree expert to write a report.
supply the report requested - you will need a tree expert to write a report
If the application does not impact the root zone of any of the trees (typically 1.5x the crown spread) then you may be able to argue back that a report is unnecessary but the root
of least resistance is just do the surveyNot trying to be an ar@e but I assume the trees you have already taken down are not the ones where a TPO has been put on ?!
Timing is a little coincidental.
It will be the Highways Dept that will no doubt have the say on changing any access.
The timeline you mentioned sounds way too short / optimistic for any agreement unless your Council is somewhat more efficient than ours.
Best of luck.
Timing is a little coincidental.
It will be the Highways Dept that will no doubt have the say on changing any access.
The timeline you mentioned sounds way too short / optimistic for any agreement unless your Council is somewhat more efficient than ours.
Best of luck.
I'm going to email the planner again today (did so originally on receipt of their email last week) playing dumb, saying that I have no understanding of any TPO's on the site as have not been advised of such, and they are not showing on the councils TPO website (which is still true as of today).
I'm just going to say that whilst we have no issue with any trees have TPO's on them, we aren't aware of any, and do not believe any trees currently on the site have any relevance to the planning application.
See what, if anything, comes back from that. Don't really want to spend what is £1,200.00 doing these reports for no apparent reason, and more worryingly giving the council an open ended diary as to a decision date which was originally set for next week.
I'm just going to say that whilst we have no issue with any trees have TPO's on them, we aren't aware of any, and do not believe any trees currently on the site have any relevance to the planning application.
See what, if anything, comes back from that. Don't really want to spend what is £1,200.00 doing these reports for no apparent reason, and more worryingly giving the council an open ended diary as to a decision date which was originally set for next week.
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