Town changes affecting my property, compensation for everything and how to do it?

Lady_K

A relief road is planned to run at the bottom of my back garden through what is at present a council car park. Previous to that it was allotments but the council took over the land in preparation for the bypass and made it into the temp car park.

The end of my garden is going to be taken by the council for this but although it is a relatively small bit it will have a quite an impact because there are very tall trees there, one is 50ft or more and replacing these would take years, its going to take away the frame of the garden. The bypass is going to run onto a ring road to be built at the end of my street. Because of the ring road they have said that the end of my street has to be permanentally blocked off with no access for vehicles, padestrians only. Anyone visiting by car will have to drive the long way around and I just feel it will cut me off a bit as my house is going to be near the blocked end.

I am concerned about these various things

The part of my garden they are taking away and the replacement of trees and time to re-grow

What the fence or wall will be like that they replace the present one with which is tall and very thick and strong, concern about it keeping intruders out as this was a problem before the big thick fence was put up

The added fumes from cars going up and down the bypass

The increased noise from the bypass and ring road

The safety of it, if there was an accident could a car come ploughing through my garden fence or wall

The affect on the value on my property and that these changes would put people off buying if it were ever to go on the market.

And this will also mean padestrians coming to or from my house and this area using the vehicle blocked end will have to go over an extrememly busy mini ring road and bypass to get to the shops, dentist, solicitors, doctors, bank tescos and travel facilities etc

I have had letters posted through my door for some years now from churchills, buisiness, property and compensation consultants but as this work was quite a way off I havent made arrangements with anyone yet but what is the best way to go about this? It says in the letter that many of my nieghboughs have appointed them to act on their behalf but they have not heard from me yet and they strongly advise me to appoint someone even if its not them. There is a card to fill in and it says 'the cost of the work under-taken on processing my claim is undertaken by the appropriate government department and there is no charge whatsoever'
Is this definate that I wont get charged?

There are plans at the local library but I have difficulty getting out due to mobility problems. I have asked the council if they can send me the plans but they say they cant. There have been meetings but I can't get there either. Visiting a solicitor would cause problems too.

I know I can't stop this but want to make sure I get the necessary work done to my property and I'm covered for any losses disturbance and inconveniences of these changes

Fire_Fox

Speak to your local council about who deals with 'hard to reach' groups when carrying out consultations - they should have a framework in place as AFAIK this is a national requirement. You may need to chase around quite a bit, my experience with our council is many departments just want to tick boxes, but don't give up as there will be someone who wants to help! Often plans and consultation documents are available online, are you sure these aren't? If you don't get any joy via the 'hard to reach' route, contact all your local councillors and MP and ask for a home visit due to your mobility issues. I would do as much of this in writing as possible, perhaps e-mail then follow up with recorded delivery letters if you can get someone to post them for you. A paper trail is helpful to prove what efforts you made to get your voice heard.

goldengirl28

local councillor - home visit..........................definately

my mum who was house bound had the local MP visit when she had a problem with access to her house

you are going to have to make a load of noise

Firefox....................are you familiar with the house/farm on the M62 that the owner objected to selling his land to build the M62? he is still there and they built the motorway around him

So objecting does work as long keep at them as you

googler

Local disability help group(s), CAB, local MP, councillers, disability depts at the council, etc.

If any of them prove obstructive, suggest to your local newspapers that they might wish to run a story....?

FATBALLZ

People complain that the countries transport and housing infrastructure is crap yet whenever the government tries to do anything about it people still complain. Oh well.

JQ.

goldengirl28 wrote: »

Firefox....................are you familiar with the house/farm on the M62 that the owner objected to selling his land to build the M62? he is still there and they built the motorway around him

So objecting does work as long keep at them as you

I'm afraid that's an urban myth. The property is rented, always has been and the owner did not object to the road. It was cheaper to route the road the way they did irrespectve of whether the property was there or not, because of the topography of the land. The owner received compensation and they built tunnels to enable the tenant to access the land.

goldengirl28

oh well...................thats another myth debunked

thanks JQ.

Fire_Fox

goldengirl28 wrote: »

Firefox....................are you familiar with the house/farm on the M62 that the owner objected to selling his land to build the M62? he is still there and they built the motorway around him

So objecting does work as long keep at them as you

You are assuming that we even know that there are plans afoot .... I live in a city centre undergoing regeneration. There have been consultations that we knew nothing of despite major traffic changes quite literally on my doorstep. The department responsible claimed they cannot access our building to leaflet, which is absolute rot as my community group managed to leaflet thoroughly when we had our launch. The council won't designate us as hard to reach, they don't have the funds to use royal mail to access our post boxes, we are the only ward without councillor surgeries and without neighbourhood forums ...

And breathe. :rotfl:

goldengirl28

Fire_Fox wrote: »

You are assuming that we even know that there are plans afoot .... I live in a city centre undergoing regeneration. There have been consultations that we knew nothing of despite major traffic changes quite literally on my doorstep. The department responsible claimed they cannot access our building to leaflet, which is absolute rot as my community group managed to leaflet thoroughly when we had our launch. The council won't designate us as hard to reach, they don't have the funds to use royal mail to access our post boxes, we are the only ward without councillor surgeries and without neighbourhood forums ...

And breathe. :rotfl:

Oh Firefox...................sincere apologies if i have caused you offence,

not sure what to say, other than i hope your situation gets resolved

Lady_K

No point me trying cab as there isnt one in my area I have had problems with this over other things. I didnt think about asking a councilor because its the council thats doing it and I didnt think they wouldnt want to help that much.

Is it useful to use an independant consultants like the churchills one?

This is going to take place anyway, its been planned for years and years its for padestrianising the local town so there is no way me as an individual is going to change it. I just want to know how to go about correct compensation etc

Lady_K

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Speak to your local council about who deals with 'hard to reach' groups when carrying out consultations - they should have a framework in place as AFAIK this is a national requirement. You may need to chase around quite a bit, my experience with our council is many departments just want to tick boxes, but don't give up as there will be someone who wants to help! Often plans and consultation documents are available online, are you sure these aren't? If you don't get any joy via the 'hard to reach' route, contact all your local councillors and MP and ask for a home visit due to your mobility issues. I would do as much of this in writing as possible, perhaps e-mail then follow up with recorded delivery letters if you can get someone to post them for you. A paper trail is helpful to prove what efforts you made to get your voice heard.

I will look this up it sounds like its going to be a bit of a nightmare though and I think work is going to be starting pretty soon so I don't know how much time I have left. I don't feel I trust the council as this will be for compensation mostly because its going to happen anyway. I will voice my concerns and opinions but its not going to change anything. They have already purchased homes to pave way for the road years ago. I'm not looking forward to getting all this sorted out