Garden wall alteration - PP required? (Scotland)

scottishblondie

I want to make an alteration to the line of my garden wall, but I cannot figure out whether I would require planning permission to do so, or if it would fall under permitted development rights. I'm hoping that someone here can tell me either way.

The house is a terraced townhouse in a row of 4, build in 2012. It is not in a conservation area, and obviously it is not listed. The houses front onto a green area and back onto a road from which my parking area is accessed. The land outlined in red below is my property (including the land which the parking area sits on). The wall in question is a brick wall, a little under 2m tall. It separates my garden (marked in green) from my parking area (marked in pink) and has a recess in it that is meant to house the wheelie bins.

Unfortunately, this is not terribly useful. It's not actually big enough to contain the bins and leaves 2 small and mostly useless bits of garden either side of it. I would like to straighten out the wall, which would improve the garden massively. There is also a paved area between the wall and the parking area which is big enough to contain the bins without the recess. The height and visual appearance of the wall would remain the same.

I think that this is the relevant piece of planning legislation, but I'm struggling to understand it. There is also guidance here which is the same but from a more recent publication. If the back of the house didn't face a road I think I would be in the clear, but since it does I'm really not sure!

Can anyone help clarify?

Hasbeen

Looking at my local council it appears for a new wall facing the path/road has to be 1 metre in height.

Your's is an existing height of approx 2 metres so it does appear you can straighten it out.

There may be a condition though that bins should not be left on the footpath.

Perhaps a trip to the building control with your pans and some photos might get the correct information.

stator

Your wall is far enough back from the road that you don't need planning permission. 1m only applies close to the road

System

Firstly, you should make sure that you have any permitted development rights, a lot of new build estates have these removed.
Secondly, bin stores are required as part of the planning permission, so if you remove it (whether or not it's useful is another matter) that may require permission.
Third, does the bin store belong to you? You may find that you only own up to the boundary wall and the parking spaces and bin store are just rights of access.

scottishblondie

the_r_sole wrote: »

Firstly, you should make sure that you have any permitted development rights, a lot of new build estates have these removed.
Secondly, bin stores are required as part of the planning permission, so if you remove it (whether or not it's useful is another matter) that may require permission.
Third, does the bin store belong to you? You may find that you only own up to the boundary wall and the parking spaces and bin store are just rights of access.

As far as I can tell the houses on the development still have permitted development rights. There is nothing on the council planning portal that indicates we do not. Several of the houses have erected conservatories/small extensions to the rear with only a building warrant.

I checked the title plan and the whole area from the boundary between the common footpath and my front garden, to the boundary between my parking spaces and the pavement behind the house is owned by me. It is definitely not just a right of access.

Interestingly the plan which was approved for the development (see below) actually shows the bins as being located inside the garden - I think they are the 3 little squares next to the garden path. I had to amend the one I posted initially to show the recess in the wall as it has been built.

There are also 2 further blocks of townhouses behind us which back onto a footpath that is part of the common areas of the development. The approved plan also shows their bins inside the garden, but they all store them on the footpath, which is outwith their property boundary.

TBH I'd be happy to store the bins within the garden if that is what the council would require for me to be able to straighten the wall!!

scottishblondie

Thanks to everyone who replied to my question. For the sake of completeness, I thought I'd record what the official word from the council is. I contacted the planning department via email and got a shockingly speedy response - only one day!

They have advised that no planning permission would be required, as the land is mine and the wall in question is under 2m in height any changes would fall under permitted development rights. The planning officer did note that the "nook" is a bin storage area and said:

as such you would have to make a new storage area within the curtilage of your property and bring them out to the roadside for bin collection

I checked up on what "curtilage" means in this case and found it here

curtilage is not defined in the 1997 Act or 1992 Order but it is accepted to mean land which is used for the comfortable enjoyment of a building and which serves the purpose of that building in some necessary or reasonably useful way. It need not be marked off or enclosed in any way. Normally the curtilage would relate to the property boundary of the dwellinghouse.

Based on this I understand "within curtilage" to mean within the boundary of my property, which would include the existing paved area between the wall and my parking spaces. So it appears that I can safely continue to store the bins there if I remove the nook.

So now I just need to figure out how much it will cost to partially demolish and rebuild the wall...