house being built, can I appose?

Myown

We have just received a letter from our local council, the neighbour who lives on a corner plot has his garden behind us, he wants to build a two story 3 bed roomed house in his garden, this house will face the back of my house and my adjoining neighbour, we both have small gardens.
The side of his garden faces a main road, he has his driveway there, he plans to have this widened and from this create a further driveway with a car park for two cars, the car park being in front of my rear fence.
Twice a day children walk past his driveway to the school which is on the main road too!

The back of his garden is quite long, it runs past my house, and my neighbours, behind his garden are open views, grass and walkways, it is not to be developed. Across the main road is it is the same, this leads on to the pennine trail, there are two housing estates either side. The houses on the left are concrete with pebble dash, the same as ours, to the right there are a few brick built, the rest concrete/pebbledash.

I want to oppose this development, it will invade my privacy, over shadow my garden and reduce light considerably to my neighbour and my home.
My other concern is that the back of my home gets the majority of wind, due to open space behind our garden, The neighbour who wants to build this house, his home is to the right, then his neighbour is to the right, next to my home 10ft lower than my house, if this house is built it will form a wind tunnel between the new house and the ones on the right. This new house will be higher than my house as the land is higher too!
We will no longer be able to view the open space and the trees behind or across the road, this house will obscure our view.

I have already been told by other neighbours I will be wasting my time as the neighbour who has submitted the plans is a local councillor

I want to oppose because of the effect on my home, not because he is a councillor or for any other reason. I am not happy with exhaust fumes in my garden, my son has lung disease.

Can I oppose this application on any of my reasons?

greenface

Yes you can and if your neighbours (more the better) object for their reasons you have a greater chance of stopping the build . Im not too sure if you sons lung problem will sway much though.

Sooki

You may have a legal right to light.

moneyistooshorttomention

Sooki wrote: »

You may have a legal right to light.

From memory, I believe if a house has had its "light" for 20 years or more that there is the legal right to retain this. Worth checking out - I'd be googling away for "right to light" and "lumens" (the name for the way the amount of light is measured if I recall aright - ie "its so many lumens of light in such and such a place").

So what that the man concerned is a councillor. It makes it more difficult possibly, but not impossible. He shouldnt be pushing his own vested interests and, if he tries to, then there is always the MP or the Local Government Ombudsman.

PaulLuke

You may find this surprisig but not all council staff bow down to pressure from councillors. The odds are that for a single dwelling the decision may well be delegated to planning officers, unless it get called in for committee decision.

The officers will make their decision based on planning considerations, including planning policy guidance and local plans, not on the basis of pressure from a councillor. If you (and your neighbours) would object to such a proposal if it was not submitted by a councillor, then you should object now.

That said, it's highly likely that the councillor would have discussed this application with the planners to get their initial views (note views, not decision) on the application. At least I would and I'm not a councillor so don't have such easy access to council staff as a councillor would. This means they may already have taken account of the local planning policies etc in the application.

As an aside, if it does go to committee and the councillor concerned sits on the planning committee, he/she would have to sit out on decisions concerning the application.

Wanton

Is it possible for you to tell us the council? And also the reference number so we can look it up online?

Johnandabby

Don't just give up, and make sure you tell your neighbours the same. As PaulLuke says, the councillor can't vote for their own application. Most are so arrogant that they probably haven't checked with their own planning department.

You, and all your neighbours, need to formally object to the development. Keep it very unemotional (I know its hard!), as the planning officer and/or committee will only consider facts, like:

The new house will appear large in scale when compared to your house due to the differences in ground level, and will be overbearing.

The new house could create a wind tunnel effect which could would significantly reduce the enjoyment of your garden.

The new house would significantly reduce the amount of daylight and sunlight within your garden and house, affecting enjoyment of your garden and quality of life.

It is an overdevelopment of the site, and would result in obstruction of important views from your and other properties.

It would result in increased vehicular traffic onto the main road, which is a key concern due to this being a key pedestrian route for children to walk to the school.

Johnandabby

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

From memory, I believe if a house has had its "light" for 20 years or more that there is the legal right to retain this. Worth checking out - I'd be googling away for "right to light" and "lumens" (the name for the way the amount of light is measured if I recall aright - ie "its so many lumens of light in such and such a place").

Yes, but there is also a mechanism for purchasing someones right to light, so there's no guarantee that this can be protected. There are however prescribed methodologies for assessing reduction in daylight and sunlight to an existing property, and definitions of what is considered acceptable. As a rule, up to 20% reduction is considered 'acceptable' in planning terms.

embob74

As far as I'm aware you do not have a right to retain your view. Best thing is to contact your planning department and ask what are allowable objections.

G_M

You need to read up on legitimate reasons for opposing a Planning Application.

Personal things like a medical condition will be ignored.Only put valid reasons into your objection. The council's planning website (eg here) may list valid reasons, or the government website.

Or read this

http://www.hillsamenitysociety.co.uk/detail/planning-objection.htm

Lister_2

Personally would drop the whole "car park / fumes / children walking to school" bit. It's parking for two cars, not a car park. No different from most houses.

Keep it rational, and object on proper grounds. Your objections will be taken more seriously.