Another planning-objection-help-needed please UPDATE

Strapped

Debt_Free_Chick wrote: »

I would imagine that the application would go to Committee, but CHECK! If it's been delegated to a Planning Officer - which is common as there are so many applications to deal with - then contact your local councillor and ask them to "use the call-in procedure" which means that the application will go to Committee.

This doesn't necessarily mean that the answer to the application will be different - the Planning Officer will submit a report to the Committee with a recommendation to refuse or grant PP - but it does raise the profile of the application. And it means that the Committee will more than likely visit the site to see it for themselves.

So find out if the application has been delegated and if so, get it called-in to Committee.

Thanks, a useful tip. If the Parish Council has objected, do you think it will go to Committee, or is there someone else I should contact (District Councillor?)

Davesnave

I suspect that the people in the big house behind won't object, as they've mentioned to us that they believe that part of the land is actually theirs, but they haven't told the applicants, so maybe they are hoping for a payout.

Or an especially large one, if they let them do much of the work before pointing out that part of the building is on their land!

Strapped

TBH, I have little sympathy for the applicants - you'd've thought that checking ownership would be something you made sure to do before developing a site. We already have had to point out that the fence they planned to remove was OURS :rolleyes:

Debt_Free_Chick

Strapped wrote: »

Thanks, a useful tip. If the Parish Council has objected, do you think it will go to Committee, or is there someone else I should contact (District Councillor?)

The Parish Council's views have no more weight than yours, as a local resident (I was a Parish Council Clerk until July, this year).

So - no - the PC's objections will not automatically move the application to Committee. You must contact your District Councillor and ask him/her to use the call-in procedure, to get the application considered by the Planning Committee (a bunch of District Councillors, acting under the advice of a Planning Officer).

HTH

Debt_Free_Chick

Strapped wrote: »

TBH, I have little sympathy for the applicants - you'd've thought that checking ownership would be something you made sure to do before developing a site. We already have had to point out that the fence they planned to remove was OURS :rolleyes:

Planning is nothing to do with land ownership. I can make an application to develop the site that your property occupies All that planning does is to confirm (or deny) that the application meets the planning laws/policies i.e. that the development is in line with planning policies. It does not give the applicant permission to enter another person's land. In effect, it states that .... assuming you have the relevant permissions, then this development is acceptable, within the local planning policies.

Where an applicant is applying for permission to develop someone else's land, they (the applicant) should have served notice of the development to the landowner. The applicant usually has to sign a declaration to confirm they've done this, but local planning authorities don't have the resources to check every application. Even if they don't check, the grant of planning application is not permission to develop someone else's land - that's a completely different issue and nothing to do with planning.

Ignore this issue - it will not be a planning matter and will simply "muddy the waters".

Regards

Strapped

Thanks, right, off to find out who the district councillor is :cool:

Oblivion

Sorry to inject a note of negativity here, but right now I'm feeling pretty negative about the whole planning maladministration in this country.

I and my fellow residents were / are faced with a planning application from our new land owners to develop new buildings alongside our existing ones, which would involve destroying a major chunk of our beautifully landscaped grounds.

We did everything right. We campaigned locally and involved all our neighbours and got hundreds of potentially affected local residents to send objection letters to our local council. We got all three of our ward councillors on board as well as representatives from various conservation and wildlife groups, who all wrote in support of our case, and we got the case called in to committee.

The result ... a unanimous cross-party vote by the council's planning committee to reject the application ... HURRAY!

Our celebration of good common sense was short lived. The applicants took the decision to appeal by the Government's Planning Inspectorate who ignored the unanimous council rejection, ignored all our letters of objection, and awarded the applicants planning consent. And we have no right of appeal against that appalling decision.

The process of planning regulation in this country is a sick joke.

Dave.

lincroft1710

Oblivion, sorry to hear that.

Debt_Free_Chick

Oblivion wrote: »

The applicants took the decision to appeal by the Government's Planning Inspectorate who ignored the unanimous council rejection, ignored all our letters of objection, and awarded the applicants planning consent.

They won't have ignored the objections. All the paperwork from the original application gets submitted to the PI as part of the appeal process. And everyone who commented on the original application gets the chance to comment/object again, directly to the PI if they want to.

The appeal would have been won because the PI was of the opinion that the development was not out of line with the planning policies.

It really doesn't matter how many objections there are - planning applications are not popularity competitions - they are passed or refused depending on the features of the application and whether they fit with the planning policies.

I don't say it's a perfect system, but at least there's a "level playing field" so by studying the planning policies (national and local) one can determine whether any particular application "fits" or not.

Regards

Oblivion

Debt_Free_Chick wrote: »

I don't say it's a perfect system, but at least there's a "level playing field" so by studying the planning policies (national and local) one can determine whether any particular application "fits" or not.

Regards

What is so terribly wrong about the system is that some bureaucratic unelected Planning Inspector, who lives in a totally different part of the country to us, has overturned a unanimous decision made by elected councillors who understand the needs of this area.

The whole appeal process is anti-democratic and takes insufficient account of the wishes of the local electorate and their elected representatives. You might just as well put Robert Mugabe in charge!

Dave.