new build advice

planning_officer

This is a difficult thread to respond to, as there seem to be many issues floating around, without much coherency.

Firstly, whether or not the applicant is a Councillor will make no difference to the planning process. I'm a planning officer and I've dealt with several planning application submitted by Councillors - we are completely impartial and bound by the Code of Conduct of the Royal Town Planning Institute, so everything will be done properly. If anything, you have to make doubly sure everything complies with the relevant policies!

Secondly, regarding the separation issue - there are no 'set rules'. Different Councils may have guidelines in their Local Plans or design guidance documents, but they are only guidance. Every single site is different in terms of its relationship to another - size, orientation, topography, types of buildings, window positions etc. It is therefore impossible to have a 'set rule' on separation distances which can apply fairly to every site. A planning judgement is made by trained and professional planning officers. I cannot comment in detail on your case, as I don't know the orientation of the houses and your description isn't precise enough for me to visualise it accurately. However, 18 metres doesn't sound too bad and there is no way that a building 18 metres away from yours will block light to your windows. Loss of light is tested by a strict procedure, using guidance produced by BRE ('Site Layout Planning for Daylight and Sunlight') - a detailed light calculation is a complicated procedure! However, as a first rule of thumb you have to draw a line projecting 25 degrees from the vertical, from the centre of your nearest window. If the proposed building bisetcs that line, then there is a possibility of some loss of light - however you still then need to do a detailed calculation.

I have just drawn out a sketch of two buildings sited 18 metres apart and drawn such a line from an imaginary ground floor window. It works out that the proposed building would need to be well over 10 metres tall (at the point which is exactly 18 metres from your house) to reduce any light at all. Even then, the distance is such that it is highly unlikely to reduce any light reaching your windows, even if it projected above that height.

In accordance with the BRE guidance, the maximum percentage of light that a window can receive is 40% of all available light. A reduction up to a level of 27% is acceptable in planning terms - an application will not be refused on those grounds if 27% of light is still available. Given that the new hosue would be 18 metres away from your window, there is no way it will reduce the light to any of your windows down to that level, so it's not really a worthwhile argument to pursue.

Regarding overlooking, that can only occur if there are windows facing your house - is that the case? It may be that they can be obscurely glazed as part of the planning permission, to eliminate overlooking.

Planning officers do not always visit adjacent sites if they can see what they need to from the application site itself.

Myown

Thank you for your help, swo what you are saying is there are no set rules, this is probably why there are so many problems.

Yes the back of the new property is facing the back of our properties (gable end to us)

In my first post I stated my neighbour should have 20 meters it was the wrong figure, it should of said 12 meters, he actually has 8 meters at present.

The house is 18 meters from my house, the new build will be to my left oposite my neighbours house, then the next neighbour, they can see into windows as the house will be built on higher ground.

Athough the new build is stating 18 meteres from the houses, this is not true! as he has moved the boundry towards our homes, he is actually using new plans as if the land he wishes to build on is a rectangle, running lengthways across our houses, this means our boundries are running in a straight line. But, he is using the measurements from the original plans, the boundry runs out towards the applicants land making a triange shape across 4 properties, there for, his house is a lot closer to us all than he is stating.
The way he took his measurements was from the boundry fence, on his side, stating that it was 12 meters from the boundry to our property, this cannot possibly be correct as the bondary has moved towards us. If we can put our boundries back, it will mean he would have to move the house towards his back boundry, this will not be enough room.

If he turns the house, then the side of his house will face the main road, the other side will face us, running accross 4 houses. I thought it had to be front facing?
Now, it has been referred and he is looking at putting the house length ways (turning the house) this will be an eye sore!

All our houses are concrete and not brick, we have brown windows, this new build will have white, it will have grey tiles, ours are red. When I say 'ours' I mean the whole estate including his own. How is that in keeping?

We all live in the back of our homes, although the new build kitchen is in the back facing us, there is nothing to stop them putting their lounge in the back once planning has been granted, no one can stop that!

Our concerns are that we all want to put extensions on the back of our properties, or conservatories, this means this will significantly reduce the minimum width apart. The planning officer clearly stated that we would have to ask for planning permission if we wanted to put extensions on or conservatories, she could not give assurance planning would be granted. This will limit us to what we can do with our homes.

The councilors at the meeting asked, what if planning is given and once built he puts an extension on to the back, again she said she could not answer.

I am also conserned as we get a battering from the open land, behind, if he builds, this will cause a wind tunnel, where can I get help with this? is this building department? could the build be refused even if planning said yes?

Thank you for all your advice

Myown

distance between dwellings on new build
A neighbour has been given planning permission to build a two story building in front of another neighbours property in the back garden, it will cover a bedroom window and kitchen on two houses (there is a gap between the two houses)

The new dwelling will be 7.5 metres away from the rear boundary fence. In the design guide it clearly states 10.5 must be kept from house to rear boundary on both sides. It is 10 metres in two of the gardens. The design guide states the MAIN to MAIN properties facing, must keep the minimum distance of 21metres.

The new build will have a kitchen window at the back, the two other properties will have the new build overlooking there kitchen/diner windows. The new build will be over looking so they can also see in to their lounges.

The planning officer said as the kitchen window is small she can reduce it to 8 metres, yet the plan states the distance will be 17.5.


At the first planning meeting it was deferred for further talks with the applicant and his architect to see if he could turn the house so as not to overlook. This time, he was adamant that he was not going to move his new build by 2 metres. He said it would put his house closer to the road and it would be noisy??
The committee said it was a silly thing to use for an excuse, the planning officer agreed. They then voted and every one voted in favour???
Please not the applicants property will be looking at the side of the property 25 meters away.

One garden is small 5 x 6ft panels in length and width, he is going to be boxed in and overlooked changing both neighbours out look and it will block our light.

The houses have had open land for 40 yrs, or more with nothing built behind, I know it is a court matter for this, we have no money.

I know this will be a court matter for blocking light we have no money, so he will get away with it.

The applicant is a ward councillor of our parish, the second ward councillor sent an email supporting his application, the third ward councillor is the applicants daughter.
The applicant (ward councillor) purchased extra land behind our homes, it will fit two detached properties on it.

since this was agreed we have found some information on the councils website. There was an investigation for testing on waste land, it was an old railway that was covered up with soil and grass. In the report it states that the land was purchased by our Parish. It also shows photographs and maps stating of encroachment on the extra land, it maps it on the photos, it clearly shows on the map and the report he has encroached on the land owned by the parish, he has gone over by 2 metres from the land he purchased. It also questioned why nothing has been done. land registry shows he has not purchased the 2 metre strip. It also clearly shows he has encroached on our land by two meters.

My first question is can the planning officer reduce the distance of the properties facing main to main because the new dwelling has a smaller kitchen window.

Could some one tell me what if any thing can be done?

The planning officer said its green land and is changing it to brown land as it is infill, stating its surrounded on three sides, it is at the back and on the right that it has houses, the rest is gardens on the left and open space in front.

A lot of green field has been changed to brownfield in the area, houses have been built, still empty, houses on another part are being built, there is land for sale for dwelling houses 50 meters away. We tried opposing with 'garden grabbing' too!

Fuzzyness

Myown wrote: »

2/ We cannot go to our ward councillor, because the applicant is our neighbour 2 houses away, who is our ward councillor. The other ward councillor is supporting him. So there lies the difficulty.

and there we have the best example of local democracy in action. you dont stand a chance i'm afraid of getting the application refused.

Fuzzyness

Myown wrote: »

The applicant is a ward councillor of our parish, the second ward councillor sent an email supporting his application, the third ward councillor is the applicants daughter.
The applicant (ward councillor) purchased extra land behind our homes, it will fit two detached properties on it.

it gets worse.

Myown

We are complaining to the council now, it is the only thing we can do, then it goes higher, we are crossing our fingers

People who do things like this make me sick, they abuse their positions, by the time our complaints are heard, he would of started, and planning states 'don't bring personal into it' but its ok for him to keep his privacy and invade ours, upsetting every one, he only had to move it 2 meters.

The defending of the plans by the applicant was ridiculous, even the officer laughed and the council members, yet still gave permission. :mad:

Fuzzyness

if you think the decision that was taken was not done so in a correct and proper fashion you may want to consider contacting the local authority ombudsman to lodge a formal complaint. whilst doing this is unlikely to result in the permission being nulled you could raise potential failures in your authority's decision making process, which they never like. google the the local authority ombudsman for what they can and cant do.

Myown

Can you tell me what your comment means?

planning_officer

Late response time! You cannot go to the ombudsman until you have formally complained to the Council, and you are not satisfied with their written response. If you haven't complained to the Council, the ombudsman won't look at your complaint and will just return it to you.