Fencing - front of house

concerned43

I live in a council house and have a drive to the left of my house, when I moved into the property there was a 6 ft fence around the perimeter (front of drive/side of drive) is was in bad condition and the council said they would replace it - fast forward 7 months and the council came to replace the fence on Thursday.
They have replaced the side fence with another 6ft fence, however they also plan to replace the fence at the front with another 6ft fence. I wrote to them in September asking for the front fence to be lowered as I cannot see oncoming traffic/pedestrians when emerging from my drive, to which I received no response.
When the contractors informed of their plan on Friday morning I phoned the council immediately to complain, they said their works manager would call me - but of course he hasn't and could not get a hold of him Fri. afternoon, nor has he contacted the contractors!
The work is due to start at 8:20am tomorrow and their offices do not open until 9am.
My questions are:
1) can I stop the contractors from erecting the 6ft fence?
2) is there any legal requirements that fences at the front of a drive must be a certain height?
3) I have two dogs and the council are not replacing the drive gates which means I cannot let my dogs out without their leads being on - is there any rules governing the need for gates?
hope someone out there can help

poppysarah

Most people would just be happy to get new fencing BUT it doesn't sound that they're doing their usual thing of replacing like with like (Or as my friend put it after looking at her newly installed council kitchen 'like for sh*te')

You'll have to ring them first thing - but speak to the contractors and ask them to start on the side stuff first.

concerned43

just because I live in a Council house doesn't mean I have to put up with things that are a danger to my family and other people! This is not 'cosmetic' work - like your friends kitchen, it is a safety issue!
I pay full rent and expect my landlord to ensure that my family is safe while living here!
Also the other fencing has been complete - it is just the front tomorrow.

poppysarah

concerned43 wrote: »

just because I live in a Council house doesn't mean I have to put up with things that are a danger to my family and other people! This is not 'cosmetic' work - like your friends kitchen, it is a safety issue!
I pay full rent and expect my landlord to ensure that my family is safe while living here!
Also the other fencing has been complete - it is just the front tomorrow.

How many times have you crashed coming out of your drive?


You'll have to go out and discuss it politely with the workmen... but you should have been discussing it on Friday.

concerned43

Crashes - none, near misses - many!
and I did discuss it with the council and with the contrators as per my post!!

jblack_2

Do you live on a main road? Is there a pavement outside the fence?

concerned43

There is a pavement and road (tho not main) just street road.

squinty

IIRC the maximum height of a fence is determined by local planning policy so you need to look on the local councils website.

However, most places seem to have a 2 metre height restriction for rear and side fences - and a 1 metre height restriction when the fence faces the highway.

BitterAndTwisted

Council tenant has a house with a drive. Lucky!

Council are replacing a fence while budgets are being cut to the bone. Lucky!

Council tenant is allowed to keep more than one dog in the property. Lucky!

No gates on the drive. Unfortunate, but not an absolute necessity. If it's that important to them I would have thought a person could buy and erect their own.

_bankrupted

Not really relevant to this thread... but this has reminded me of a my next door neighbour but one a few years ago.

The property of my neighbour and next but one is a typical 3 bed 1930's semi. My neighbour at the time was a council driver, married, wife working part time, 2 teenage sons around 10 and 12.

Neighbour but one, similar age to neighbour, not working (and never worked for the 10 years that I knew her through her own choice), 2 daughters, one around 17 one around 15. Her house is a one off property owned by a housing association on an otherwise road full of differing privately owned properties.

One day in my garden I look back to see brand new double glazed UPV windows being installed all round her property. Then I glance to my neighbour windows. Rusting and corroded steel iron frames with single pane glass, probably original from the 30's or maybe fitted in the 60's. The same type being ripped out from his neighbours property. He had them changed about 5 years later when he could afford to.

I remember thinking at the time that there is really something wrong with this world.

To the OP, if you didn't contact the council in time and get confirmation that the front panels will be lower, then if it really is a problem a couple of 4ft panels will cost about £10 each. So I am guessing that for 30~40 quid you could replace them yourself if it really is a major problem.

Only question 2 is a reasonable one to ask.

Question 1 would mean the council wasting more money as contractors are paid for work that they don't do
Question 3 Are you serious???

ILW

OP
It is not your house, it belongs to the taxpayer. Bear that in mind before complaining too much.