Reasons to oppose planning permission?

perc

Hello

I have just received a letter from the council saying that my next door neighbour plans to demolish their garage and build a new side and rear extension.

I believe that this would affect the amount of light that comes into my living room, lobby and garden patio.

Can permission be successfully objected to on these grounds or if not what do the council consider to be reasonable objections?

Thanks

arnie&caseysma!

You should go to the Council Offices where the plans are lodged and have a look at the plans. There is the possibility for objecting on the grounds of overlooking as your privacy could be compromised. Have a look at your local council website and the grounds for objection so that you can be sure your reasons are valid.

seven-day-weekend

You can certainly object on grounds of overlooking.

However, an objection does not guarantee the application will be refused, but will certainly be taken into consideration when a decision is made.

newleaf

The objection on loss of light is now 'obsolete', and apparently only applied to a property which would be constructed directly opposite your own. You can object on loss of privacy if the proposed extension will overlook any of your windows, or safety if the proposed extension will create difficulty for access, for example. That's about it I'm afraid. If the application is turned down they can re-submit with modifications - ie less windows, or frosted glass etc. and chances are they will obtain permission in the end. This was my experience when my former neighbours decided to build a very large and intrusive 2 storey extension to the rear of their terraced house, which included substantial work on our party wall.
Your local planning office should send you clarification of legitimate grounds for objection if you ask them.

seven-day-weekend

The overlooking rule will only be applied to 'habitable' rooms, so they will not consider your lobby or patio being overlooked as valid grounds for objection.

HugoSP

Have a good look at the plans first, and before you do object, if you have time, explain your concerns to your neighbours if you can.

We have an application in and made a point of seeing all the neighbours as soon as it went in. We spent 90 minuits with one neighbour and repeated our invitation to them to come to us if they have any concerns.

Our reward - they put in an objection. I felt that we had completely wasted our time in talking to them.

I have no issue with them having raised the objection but I do think they could have had the courtesy to talk to us first. As it happens their objection is not considered as valid by the council and we were also revewing our poposal to minimise their particular concern. Had they approached us we could have told them and hopefully saved them the trouble.

Debt_Free_Chick

perc wrote:

Can permission be successfully objected to on these grounds or if not what do the council consider to be reasonable objections?

Thanks

The planning regulations are there to control development, rather than prevent it. For such a modest extension, there would have to be very good reasons for PP to be refused - and it's difficult to think of any. As others have said, there is no "right to light" from a planning perspective (although, there is possibly in common law - but that's an irrelevant and much more complex situation).

Most of us feel a slight sense of panic when neighbours want to extend their properties (perhaps some of it is a little envy? ). But the planning regulations ought to ensure that the size of the development is relevant to the existing building. Whilst this does not directly address your concerns over loss of light, it should ensure that the extension does not dominate the surrounding area.

As light comes from all directions, are you sure you would suffer significantly?

perc

Debt_Free_Chick wrote:

The planning regulations are there to control development, rather than prevent it. For such a modest extension, there would have to be very good reasons for PP to be refused - and it's difficult to think of any. As others have said, there is no "right to light" from a planning perspective (although, there is possibly in common law - but that's an irrelevant and much more complex situation).

Most of us feel a slight sense of panic when neighbours want to extend their properties (perhaps some of it is a little envy? ). But the planning regulations ought to ensure that the size of the development is relevant to the existing building. Whilst this does not directly address your concerns over loss of light, it should ensure that the extension does not dominate the surrounding area.

As light comes from all directions, are you sure you would suffer significantly?

Yes as when we moved in there were two huge trees on that side of our garden which we took down as they were cutting the light out to our patio.

Has anyone had any success on the grounds of shadowing at all?

alanobrien

perc wrote:

Hello

I have just received a letter from the council saying that my next door neighbour plans to demolish their garage and build a new side and rear extension.

I believe that this would affect the amount of light that comes into my living room, lobby and garden patio.

Can permission be successfully objected to on these grounds or if not what do the council consider to be reasonable objections?

Thanks

Some info here

http://www.clacksweb.org.uk/property/planningobjections/

and a PDF here

https://www.bracknell-forest.gov.uk/development-proposals-making-a-valid-planning-objection.pdf

Doozergirl

I doubt you'd be able to stop them getting planning permission at all but there are quite stringent regulations in place with regard to the distances and angles between your property and theirs. If they are outside those then the application will be automatically rejected, but they can resubmit until they get it right.

We've just put in an application for a considerable extension and the full drawings have the angles and distances measured to show that we plan to be within those permitted areas.

I'd go and have a look at the plans in person, ask the plannning officer if any part of the building affects your privacy. If it does, then you should object, but if it doesn't - I wouldn't be difficult just for the sake of it. If they have an objection it automatically goes to commitee even if the objection is unfounded. It means weeks longer of waiting for your neighbour and you will just serve to upset them

It's always good to speak to your neighbours before you go for PP, but like HugoSP, we talked to ours when we bought a house a few years back, showed them the plans with our architect, and low and behold, they still objected. We were only replacing a rotten single storey extension that was already there, as well :wall:

Moneymaker

Assuming the building goes ahead, painting the wall white can make a massive difference to the amount of light coming through your window.