Planning objection possible?

[boyse7en]

We've received a planning application notice for a development of 150 dwellings in the field that surrounds my house. We knew it was coming so its not a great surprise, but there are a couple of issues that i'd like to know if it is worth objecting to/asking for changes.

The row of new houses built behind my house will back onto my garden – their back gardens will come up to my fence. The developers are putting 1800mm high panel fences between the new properties' gardens, but using a wire fence at the bottom of their gardens, so although they won't be able to see into their next door neighbours' garden, the whole row will be looking directly into mine (the new houses are also higher up than mine, so the whole garden/back of the house will be overlooked. Can we object/request that they use panel fencing all round?

The other issue is that they are putting an access path to the development that will exit directly onto the bottom of my drive (it is currently a shared access to my house/the field). So anyone walking down will have to walk across the bottom of my driveway. Visibility is already poor, so I'm worried about the possibility of increased foot traffic on what is already a difficult lane to navigate (not just for me but also the properties further down the lane.
Although it is a shared access, can i object/request that the entryway to the footpath is moved so that i don't have hundreds of people walking across my drive?

[boyse7en]

ewanjp said:

Do you own the bit it's exiting onto?

Sort of...
Its a short drive about one and a half cars wide that access our house on one side and is currently an entrance into a field in the other. The boundary goes down the middle of the driveway and we each have access rights across the driveway - us so we can get to our house and the farmer could get to his field for ploughing/mowing etc.
So technically we own half and have access across the other half, and vice versa.

The footpath exit will be onto the farmers half of the drive but people will have to walk across our half, and we will still have to drive across his half.
I'm just a bit worried that the potential for an accident as it will go from one tractor every few weeks to a hundred or more pedestrian every day.

[boyse7en]

Chipstick said:

Location plan and or photos would be useful.

This is the google view of my house. The red line is my boundary. The field surrounding my house to the south and east is to be developed with around 150 houses.
You can see the boundary splits the driveway in two. The gate to the south (you can see the tractor tyre ruts in the grass) is where the footpath from the development is planned to exit.

[boyse7en]

Promised Land said:

I doubt you’d get 100 pedestrians a day walking there, most humans don’t use their legs at all and drive everywhere.

Is that the only road opening to the estate or is there one further down where that farm currently is at the end of the road?

Nice part of the country BTW.

I'm not so sure. They are doing 150 houses now, but another 800 or so are planned to join on a bit further out as they extend the town.

The road past my house will be (according to the plans) deadended down by the farm, so there should be no vehicular traffic up from that way. But just north of my house on that lane is a footpath to the primary school, which all the kids from the new estate will be using. The footpath past my house will be the most direct route, so I expect a reasonable number of pedestrians to be using it four times a day (there and back for drop off and collection times)

It has been a great bit of the countryside for the last 20 years. Its a shame that we are going to be engulfed in a big estate as it will definitely change the feel of the place. When we moved here it was a hamlet of a dozen properties a few miles out of town.

[boyse7en]

The Rotrex Kid said:

Where is the actual access to the site/housing going to be for cars? Your lane hardly looks up to supporting the vehicular traffic for 150+ houses!

Ah, well, that's a hot topic of debate in the area...

The developers are trying to buy a local park (swings, slides, football area etc) from the local council which is a bit further down the lane (about 200m) and to put the access road through it. They are promising to build a bigger park within their development, but this is facing stiff opposition as the new park would be further away from an existing estate, and the new access road would go into the existing estate near a local school. Also, developers have a poor reputation for completing local infrastructure works after they have built the houses. They all seem to go bankrupt shortly after selling the last of the houses and never complete the park/pitch/kids areas.

If the council actually develop a backbone and don't cave in and sell the park, then these houses will still get built but will have an access road going down onto the main highway - which is further away and presumably a lot more expensive for the developers to build.

[boyse7en]

Equus said:

So... purely out of interest, I've just looked this one up.

A few points that might be of interest to the OP:

• This is a Reserved Matters application on an already approved Outline. This means that for a large number of issues, the horse has already bolted. I haven't read it in detail, but there is an already signed and sealed S106 legal agreement in place covering delivery of the access, public open space, etc.
• The critical bit of land he's concerned about for the footpath access appears to be owned neither by himself nor the developer, but (subject to confirmation - though I am certain the developer will have already checked this out themselves) looks very much as though it's part of the adopted Highways verge. It's certainly not included in the application red line boundary, therefore the LPA will not consider it as part of the application (indeed, it would be unlawful for them to do so).
• The back gardens of the houses do not back onto his garden and they do not come up to his fence. There is a buffer zone, approximately 5m. deep, between his existing boundary and the proposed new garden boundaries, marked as 'existing woodland retained' on the soft landscaping plan. I assume this to be the belt of trees running up the eastern side on the image of his plot shown above. The plot boundary he has shown in red above is incorrect: the angle between his southern and eastern boundaries is slightly acute, not slightly obtuse, as he has drawn it. The proposed post and wire mesh fence lies to the east of this retained tree buffer.
• The OP must have upset someone already, because there's a cluster of affordable housing next door to his house.

Yes, outline planning permission has already been granted some time ago, including the road through the park. However, the council also said it will not sell the park but couldn't refuse the planning application to put a road across it.

The gate definitely exits onto the shared driveway, not a verge on the road. It was owned by the neighboring farm, but i don't know the details of exactly what they have sold to whom.

The image shown of my property is from Google Earth, and all the trees you can see in it are in my garden, there are no trees or "existing woodland" in the developers field - it is just grass.

I'm aware of the affordable housing... i don't suppose there is much i can do about that. I haven't upset anyone as we have had absolutely no contact with the developer at all, and have only had a letter from Planning advising us that permission is being sought and that we can send in representations.

[boyse7en]

That's the plan they have submitted. The trees are drawn badly, as there is no tree on the south side of my house, and the tree in the NE corner is shown as in my neighbor's garden when it is actually in mine.

I'm not sure what they mean by "existing woodland" as there is no woodland. It is grass (a bit overgrown since they moved the horses out, but it is definitely grass)

The plots 103, 104 and 105 are all higher than my house - the bottom of their gardens are at more or less the same height as my bedroom window (which will face them), so they will overlook all my garden and the back of my house. Plus i assume that the "existing woodland" buffer area will be open to every dog walker in the area to wander through.