Planning Objections

[SpeedFreak]

Anyone else face the pain of objections to planning applications based on opinion rather than fact? We are building a new house and have had some lovely comments. One neighbour has described the proposed property as overbearing and an overdevelopment of our site. Their house has exactly the same footprint as ours in a plot half the size! I should ignore, but it is hard not to take these things personally. What makes it more irritating is the cowardice, with the neighbour not willing to have a conversation ahead of lodging an objection.

We have had a few others. One complaining about access for pushchairs when we are improving accessibility and visibility around the entire perimeter of the site. Another just said they didn't like the design. We have had three objections from people who don't even live in the road lol.

Mini rant over.

 

[jpaul]

From what you are saying you are not impacting light /outlook of nearby properties;

but for those in semis or terraces the government rules for permitting, what 2m rear extensions ? loft extensions , without needing planning permission,
to supposedly address national housing problem seem irresponsible (what will kier do ?), if my neighbour decided to do that, would become a very difficult relationship.
Right to light law seems wholly inadequate to protect neighbours.

 

[dlockers]

Sounds like neighbor 1 has asked other neighbors to pool together and they've just made some stuff up? It happened near me, someone tried to rally the other neighbours - one made up a post about a stunning tree being damaged. The other neighbor called BS and said it's actually his tree and it's diseased af.

 

[sx_turbo]

Hopefully the planning inspector does a physical inspection and doesn't do a Google maps job.

Depending on council some do a decent job at ignoring meaningless complaints.

Some people just don't like the fact other people might have something they don't.

Some complaints can be valid though

 

[Firestar_3x]

A planning officer / inspector will only take into account comments which are actually related to planning law / guidance etc and not peoples opinions.

We had one about access and trades parking on our private lane, the officers response was: "However, these concerns are not material planning considerations." and that was the end of it.

 

[SpeedFreak]

Here is one where they clearly have sought advice but can't use spellcheck

Site notices have now been removed twice (not by us), but are not mandatory.

We object to this application in its currant form.
we feel that it is not inkeeping with the existing dwellings and surrounding context in terms of massing,scale and steet gain.It looks to have just been dropped into the site with only consideration to the existing bungalow and no consideration for urban design of the local context.The proposed building seem to break the development grain in this area,and at two storeys will be dominant at the intersection.
There seems to be no active elevations onto the street hiding the proposed dwelling behind the boundry'with the first floor becoming a weak visual feature.Timber cladding isnt a common material of this area.
There is concern of overlooking from the master bedroom and bedroom 3 of the proposels windows.We would like to see how this interacts with houses x and x with a sectional drawing through the street
We request a shadow plan to be produced to understand if there would be any negative impact upon sunlight leveis on the private amenity space of neighbouring properties.we would also like to see a context plan of the proposed building to understand the relationship between the existing homes'as the site and floor plans make it difficault to understand relationships.
The 2 storey dwelling in our opinion looks to be very overbearing and the site looks over developed.
Site notices have been removed and request they be replaced with additional notices for more residents to be informed.

 

[Kenai]

Thread needs application details / drawings so we can object too

 

[Calpol]

A planning officer / inspector will only take into account comments which are actually related to planning law / guidance etc and not peoples opinions.

We had one about access and trades parking on our private lane, the officers response was: "However, these concerns are not material planning considerations." and that was the end of it.

Not true in my experience. They often take the line of least resistance. I had expereince of this a umber of years ago with a neighbour who objected to my extension. Planning inspector came out to see them and me. Asked me to make it smaller to appease the neighbour. Next thing I know my application is refused. Spoke to the inspector who told me his boss had folded under a tirade of pressure from the neighbour. Anyway I appealed it to to the secretary of state and won. Next thing I know the neighbour is challenging the decision in the high court. I got on and built the thing and never heard any more.

People have petty jealousies. It's no wonder letterboxes get **** in.

 

[SpeedFreak]

haha, we are up to 5 now, another this evening. Apologies, a small thumbnail image:

 

[Firestar_3x]

Not true in my experience. They often take the line of least resistance. I had expereince of this a umber of years ago with a neighbour who objected to my extension. Planning inspector came out to see them and me. Asked me to make it smaller to appease the neighbour. Next thing I know my application is refused. Spoke to the inspector who told me his boss had folded under a tirade of pressure from the neighbour. Anyway I appealed it to to the secretary of state and won. Next thing I know the neighbour is challenging the decision in the high court. I got on and built the thing and never heard any more.

People have petty jealousies. It's no wonder letterboxes get **** in.

Unlucky for living in an area with rubbish planning officers then.

 

[Kenai]

With the references to an existing bungalow, two storeys, overbearing, dominant etc. would it be fair to guess you're looking to build that amongst an area of single storey bungalows? If you are, you must have seen those sort of objections coming

 

[Stu999]

Looks nice OP, hopefully the comments are disregarded.

 

[SpeedFreak]

With the references to an existing bungalow, two storeys, overbearing, dominant etc. would it be fair to guess you're looking to build that amongst an area of single storey bungalows? If you are, you must have seen those sort of objections coming

The only bungalow in the area is the one we own next door. All other properties are two stories!

 

[Kenai]

Oh, well in that case, do a proper job of being overbearing and make yours three storeys

 

[Semple]

haha, we are up to 5 now, another this evening. Apologies, a small thumbnail image:

stock image you monster!

 

[dlockers]

haha, we are up to 5 now, another this evening. Apologies, a small thumbnail image:

Oooof lol

 

[clv101]

When we built our place some 10 years ago now, we had a handful of objections, most disappointing was that our local councillor was the most vociferous objector, scared up more objections and called in our application to the planning committee. Our planning officer recommended approval but the councillors voted against, rejecting us!

However the councillors didn't put forward a single planning relevant reason for refusing so when we appealed the decision the inspector approved the application and awarded us costs as the planning committee hadn't done their job properly.

 

[SpeedFreak]

hopefully it doesn't come to that, but good to know.

Cheers @dlockers
second image to keep you happy:

 

[img]

We dont need every house to look the same. I got mine approved for extension but previous application noted they would not approve bigger even though neighbours houses will still be much bigger even after extension. Seems down to different local teams

 

[bigmike20vt]

looks lovely. Colour me jealous. 20 solar panels as well... is that to scale or just a generic "will have solar panels". because that must be a massive sized house to fit 20 panels on one side of the roof!. I hope you get it. we had planning for 2 extensions on our pad and both times it was nail biting but all came good in the end.