HELP School selling land behind my house to developers!!!

rrwfotr

Hi,

The local School behind my house is selling some land behind my house to property developers. For years the land has been used as a walkway and been used as a general purpose dog walking and exercise activites. I'm worried that the land is going to be sold and I'll have 300 flats put at the back of my house.

I asked the head and she said that the land is private property and I really had no say so!! If I had an issue to take it up with the local council, not every helpfull at all!!


Is there anything I can do, or am I just a small person against the property developers /school. I'm so worried about the increase in traffic and noise etc...


Can anyone help advice please....

robwend

speak to your neighbours first, see what type of support you can muscle up

littlereddevil

This happened to us 13 years ago and there was nothing we could do. We went from having an empty playing field to having hundreds of houses.

silvercar

Have they applied for planning permission? If so you can object.

Contact your local councillor.

Bossyboots

One of our local schools tried to do this. The neighbours got up a petition which many parents signed as well and eventually the planning application was refused.

You will need to get together as silvercar says, with your local councillor and rally as many neighbours and parents as you can. This might be "private property" as far as the school is concerned but in reality it belongs to the tax payer and will need a concerted effort by a large group to fight it off.

linlin_3

Find the title deeds for the land (I think you can do this with the full address) and download the deeds on the internet - about £7 - check carefully for restrictive covenants and/or anything which restricts the use/development of the land. There are loads of restrictive covenants on title deeds but developers obtain insurance prior to building. If you can scream restrictive covenant loudly enough, they won't be able to get insurance and won't be able to build.

KathrynPenguin

I wouldn't worry about them putting up 300 flats before seeing their plans. As others have said they will need to get planning permission first and will be looking to keep things on an even keel with the neighbours in order to have permission granted. They will be sympathetic to your issues and should try and restrict the development to sensible proportions.

The school I work for are trying to sell some land and have been trying to get planning permission. We went for the development with the least number of properties and where the social housing element was for key workers. Still not got past the objections. Without the money schools are stuffed - if the DFES has told them they can sell land and keep the money for their development programme then they are last on the list for any other money. Our desperately needed new block won't happen until we sell the land and this leaves kids having lessons in demounable classrooms where they freeze in winter and boil in summer.

At every stage in our plans we have consulted locals, made plans available and tried to smooth the way as much as possible. I'm sure your school will too.

Bossyboots

KathrynPenguin wrote:

I wouldn't worry about them putting up 300 flats before seeing their plans. As others have said they will need to get planning permission first and will be looking to keep things on an even keel with the neighbours in order to have permission granted. They will be sympathetic to your issues and should try and restrict the development to sensible proportions.

The school I work for are trying to sell some land and have been trying to get planning permission. We went for the development with the least number of properties and where the social housing element was for key workers. Still not got past the objections. Without the money schools are stuffed - if the DFES has told them they can sell land and keep the money for their development programme then they are last on the list for any other money. Our desperately needed new block won't happen until we sell the land and this leaves kids having lessons in demounable classrooms where they freeze in winter and boil in summer.

At every stage in our plans we have consulted locals, made plans available and tried to smooth the way as much as possible. I'm sure your school will too.

I have to say that is not the experience we had with our local school. The consistently tried flying under the radar and neither they nor the proposed developers had any concern for the locals or the surrounding environment.

The worst irony was that they were saving for a project they had been told they would not get funding for. Having convinced a couple of the governors that in fact this was fundamental to the school which would have to close without it and persuaded them that if push came to shove the funding would appear, they at least tried to get the school to have some consideration for the locals. In the end though it was the protesters that won the day.

As predicted, when things went wrong in the school, the money was instantly provided to make the repairs.

BobProperty

I think the planning permission will depend significantly on the local needs and benefits. How big a piece of land are we talking about? Are we talking a corner of a field for a couple of "executive" homes or several acres for a new housing estate? What is the local planning guidance for this area? What is twojags department's view because they will adjudicate the planning appeal? Is this a LA school or a private school? Has the school some deal to benefit out of it? The questions go on and on and when it comes to detailed PP it may be relevant how far away it is from your house and which rooms have windows overlooking the site.

kne

Not sure exactly how it worked but the house im renting at the moment the landlord went to apply for planning permission to build a house in the back garden.
The neighbours were clever and got a preservation order put on all the trees in the back garden, apparently if you can see them from the road and they are X meters tall it can be done quickly? This is what I heard from the neighbours anyways! Planning permission was refused!

rrwfotr

The school head has been very shifty I have to say, she says that people have been informed of the local development however it appears only a hand full of people have been told and they appear to be parents of school children or people letting property. I only found out when walking across the land and saw a tiny little letter put on the gate. Lucky I did as know one would of been the wiser. I'm really worried that hundreads of flats will be built and basically our quiet road will be turned into a living nightmare with parties and cars driving past with load music all night long and those stupid small motor bikes that make so much noise.

No ofference to anyone but I've seen places in my local area go down the pan as soon as these flats are built. They usally house young people with not many /any ties to the area who rent and don't really give a monkeys about other people apart from themselves.

The land is quite a big plot it was used as a football pitch however for the last year the plot has been unkept, obv due to it being sold on.

The school is lEA school, the head says the money from the land will be put back into the school, I doubt it as the school is quite well kept and is a top perofrmer locally.