Huge Backland development - help!!! Please!

frugalfran

Our neighbour (our back garden adjoins his garden) has applied for planning permission for a huge house to be built ‘in tandem / backland’ with his current home.


We have other objections to the property, but would like to have anyone’s comments on whether we are right to argue that the application is ‘false / misleading / inaccurate / incomplete’ (??) and whether we should use these arguments in our letter of objection:

1. The artist impressions show misleading distances between current and the proposed gardens and actual boundaries. They give the impression of substantially more of their land separating our properties than exists – the picture would have had to be taken from deep into our property! There were no visual clues to put it in context with e.g. hedge height, so the casual observer would be unaware of the extreme scale issues for the proposed building. (22m x 11m)!! (Plus additional area for utility room and mammoth garage)
2. It is claimed to be a ‘mainly single story building’ but we believe it is mainly two storey – in the roof area are two bedrooms and a bathroom, but also two ‘store rooms’ (4.5m x 4.5m) of the same height as the bedrooms. We think these should be included in the calculations.
3. Also, the living room has a vaulted ceiling to the top roof height – so does this part of the house count towards the calculation of being double storied?
4. The garage is mammoth – 7.4m x 7.4m with a ridge height of 6.1metres – and is very close to our garden. Website garageplans.co.uk show such garages as ‘loft’ garages – so we think they may have the idea – or at least are building in the idea – of further future expansion. We think you cannot take ‘future developments’ into account in objections – is there any way we could cover this?

Anyone who reads this and can help - many thanks in advance!

Hintza

You need to look at the local plan. You also need to be factual do not add emotion to your objections (our neighbour did that and started to look silly) and do not be a NIMBY. Go to planning and talk to the planners (do not take anything they say as gospel unless they put it in writing).

Be prepared to employ a planning consultant if you think the impact on your quality of life is great.

Plans (for planning) sound a bit iffy to me so you are going to need to be on the ball.

mrschaucer

They will have summitted detailed plans and elevation drawings with their planning proposal. Get yourself copies (I'm sure you have!)and go through them with a fine tooth comb. Note whether they have shown distances to your/other boundaries and how much of the original plot would now be covered by new building. Will it be overbearing and out of scale for the neighbourhood? What about access, drainage, overlooking of your house/garden? This sort of factual information is the stuff to highlight in your objection, together with your four points in your OP, which seem pretty valid to me. If you can show your arguments are calmly reasoned and not hysterical they will be more inclined to take notice, and if you enclose a photo showing the artistic licence of the artist's impression, they might just start to look at the details a bit more closely rather then accepting everything at face value.

frugalfran

T hanks, we are obviously emotional, but are trying to be objective - contacting the local councillor and the Residents Association for our area.

We've just discovered that the architect says that the garage roof pitch matches the dwelling - which it doesn't - the angles are different. So how should we say they are being misleading / inaccurate / wrong etc etc?

Access is fine, but there are no details at all of any SUDS reports and only sketchy details of boundary replanting - they've changed it at the bottom of our garden from leaving the old (100 yr) unmaintained - except by us - hedge to show trees, but we have no idea what trees they mean -0 do they have to specify them?

so many thanks for your replies . .. OH and I have spent almost 4 complete days on this so far and he needs some sleep!

mrschaucer

Just say in your letter what you're saying on here. They are not expecting a fully researched PhD paper! "They are being misleading because ... The architect's comments that the roof pitch matches is wrong because ... " What you want to do is sow the seeds of doubt and make the Planners really look at the proposals.

frugalfran

So far it is only being looked at by a single planning officer - it hasn't gone to committee. We've researched the council web site for rejected applications - took hours! - and got some choice phrases from there but most of the rejections were in the green belt which we are
not.
Concerns about the height of the garage voiced by the planning officer seem to have just disappeared off the radar!

mrschaucer

Well, remind him of his concerns in your objection letter; the height will be documented on the plans, and if you are concerned about future change of use, and possible use of the garage loft for further accommodation, then it is quite OK to draw it to the Planner's attention. I think you are too concerned about saying the "right" things - the Planners make allowances for the fact that objections come from untrained membes of the public. If anything is irrelevant or not a valid reason they will ignore it. So it's really best to put as much in as possible rather than leave stuff out.

frugalfran

Do you live in Ewelme by any chance? We visited there recently and there is a wonderful - quite magnificent - tomb to he first Mrs Chaucer....

But let's please stick to the point - poor OH is almost going grey ..... that is the bits that aren't already....

mrschaucer

No, but I have informed OH that I expect nothing less when my time comes ...
Seriously, good luck in the coming fight, and remember that most Planners are used to developers/architects being a bit economical with the truth. By the way, if you have access to a camera and a computer, how about doing a mock up photo of how the proposed new build will look? Nothing fancy, just the outline bulk of the building from some point on your plot. I've seen this done and it was very effective.

frugalfran

That is in our plan too, but beyond either of us personally so we're hoping to enlist the help and skills of a younger neighbour when he gets back after a weekend away! Thanks for your support and good ideas, we have got photos from Google of before several non-TPO trees were very recently felled, and will include these for Loss of Trees, although they were felled before (in preparation for) the application.

Do you have any knowledge of the single storey part of my OP? We'd really like to have some chapter and verse on that and can't find any....

Cash-Cow_3

I take it this is a full application and not outline? If outline you will need to check what they are applying for now and which items are 'reserved'.

Forget the artist impressions they are a waste of time - useful for the client but that's about all. Use the block plan / site plan to check distances between houses. Check that the elevations match the plans.

I wouldn't use a planning consultant. Expect your 'in box' to be spammed with plenty offering their help.

The good news is that these applications are bread and butter for planning officers who have tried and tested policies to deal with over looking issues and cramped form of back garden development.

State your case clearly and concisely and mention any inaccuracies in the plans. Don't mention things that are non-planning matters such as the value of your house will go down.