Urgent help needed with planning objection due tomorrow

maggiecon

Hi My mum just asked me help lodge an objection to here neighbours planning application.

she lives in an old victorian three storey building close to the main road. our semi detached neighbour converted her house into a creche and when my mum was on holidays last year she built a horrible conservatory around her front door, without planning, for the parents to stand in when they are collecting the children.

My mum objected and planning upheld her objection based on the fact everyone stands in the conservatory and watches into our house. Now her new planning application she is intending on blocking up the side that faces on to our house in brick so we will have a 2.5 by 3m high wall running up to our front door from the driveway.

on what basis can we object to this. The house is not listed but other houses on the street are.

Please help as i need to have letter in by tomorrow.

steveandel

Firstly, get a copy of your planning authority's planning rules/advice and look through to find out what grounds for objection you might have.

barginunter

Take photos to illustrate how the solid wall will loom over your Mum's door and block off natural light.
A compromise might be for the porch/conservatory to have blinds or opaque material on the bits overlooking next door.
Was the conservatory erected without planning permission in the first place? I didn't think you could erect such a thing on the front of a house.

keith969

Taken from my old council's planning application comments sheet...

Things that can be taken into consideration for planning applications:
- Design, appearance and layout
- Highway safety
- Residential amenity (loss of attractive features e.g. parks or woodland)
- Loss of light
- Overshadowing / Overlooking (loss of privacy)
- Noise, disturbance or smell once the development is in use.

So you can object based on loss of light and loss of privacy. Of course you have to ask yourself if a wall is worse than irretrievably falling out with your neighbour...

absent_dad

This is Policy H14 – unacceptable loss of light and privacy

Clearly the objection in the first instance was privacy, as people could look into your property. They have now submitted a new application for a solid wall, however, who is going to want a 10 foot by 8 foot wall by their house, I certainly wouldn't...it would feel like a prison wall It is certainly going to block out your natural light.

Also look into things that affect the front of the property, check with the council and their policy on this as this may effect the look of the street.

Don't get personal in the letter, stick to the facts and be direct...stick in loads of waffle and their eyes will glaze over.

Hope this helps

swagman

Also, try to find any other people in the nearby area who object to the appearance of the porch - maybe it generally detracts from the look of the houses and neighbours, for example across the road, can have an objection to its effect.

If so they should write their own, simple letters. Don't combine them into a petition as separate letters carry more weight.

planning_officer

You need to know exactly why the first application was refused. The Council cannot now introduce new objections if they weren't part of the first refusal, so if the only issue was overlooking from the side and they are now proposing a brick wall instead of glazing, it may well overcome the previous objection. The Council can't refuse it for something different now, like poor design, if it wasn't refused on those grounds before (unless of course, the brick wall is far more prominent than glazing and makes it more intrusive in the street scene perhaps?).

Not sure where 'absent dad' above is coming from - different Councils have different policies, so unless you know which council area the original poster lives in and have looked at their Local Plan for their policies, you can't say it's Policy H14 (that's the policy for one particular Council, but others will be different). Whilst the gist of them will probably be pretty similar, (for the original poster) - don't quote policy numbers unless you definitely know which one(s) is/are relevant from your Local Plan. Also, don't 'stick in loads of waffle' like 'absent dad' suggests, as the planning officer will skim over it and won't take the important points in - keep it concise and to the point.

maggiecon

thanks rang the planning office and they have arranged for us to see the plans on Monday.

We will be objecting on several grounds, I no qualms about falling out with the neighbour as she doesnt live their the building is used as a creche.

She has turned our residential area into a business and we can never get out of our drive way in the mornings and evenings wiht parents coming and going.

My amin objection is the fact the conservatory is not symapthetic to the original victorian house. loss of privacy and loss of light.

If she had built it at the side door into the house we would have no objection.

It reallly is an eyesore you drive down our street where the houses are 130+ years old and you see these lovely big victorain three storey semi and then stuck on the front of one like a big carbuncle is this big White pvc conservatory.

How do I found out the grounds the original plans were rejected for.

Yorkie1

Can't answer your specific question about finding out the original reasons for the plans being rejected, but a couple of other random questions occur to me.

1. If the house is no longer being lived in, but used for commercial purposes i.e. the creche, was there a change of planning use? (If it needed one).

2. You say the houses are 130+ years old. Are there any restrictive covenants about building at the front? I have a 75-year old semi and there are restrictive covenants saying I can't build out beyond the front of the house.

slummymummyof3

So is she applying for planning permission retrospectively?

jamesperrett

I know that this is too late but it is worth pointing out that most local authorities now have online access to planning applications. You will probably gain more relevant help if you can point us to the relevant application.

James.