Tips for planning permission appeal

baxio

Hi,

I recently put up a Ketter plastic shed in my front garden, and a week later thought "do I need planning permission for this?" It turns out you DO if it's in front of the primary elevation (front wall of the house) otherwise it's permitted development. So I put in retrospective planning permission and the council turned it down because it's "made of unsympathetic materials" and "breaks up the street scene." I spoke to them and offered a couple of compromises (raising the fence or covering it with wood) but they wouldn't budge, so it's on to the appeals process which goes to the secretary of state.

Two crazy things about this

1.) There are a number of sheds in front of the primary elevation on our estate, so if I'd just kept my mouth shut and not asked for planning permission I'd have gotten away with it
2.) The way the primary elevation is angled (corner plot) the places where it's allowed under permitted development are worse than where it is now:

It could go in the rear corner of the double driveway flush with the neighbours hedge, but this isn't hidden by a 6ft hedge so would break up the street scene even more!

It could go in the tip of the rear garden (corner plot so it's a triangle shape) but this would block out my neighbours light

It even says in the councils own guidance "Outbuildings should normally not be in front of dwellings unless, within the development, there is an irregular arrangement of buildings" so I think this should be enough for them to consider the current placement.

I've been through the guidance the council referenced in their refusal and written up a response, but was just wondering if anyone had any general advice on appealing a planning decision?

Thanks,

Dan

Slinky

From what I've seen in our area I doubt even if you lose the appeal your council will enforce it. You'd be terriby unlucky. For such a small breach, they don't have time our resources for minor issues. I know of somebody who has put an electric garage door on a carport in breach of planning. 10 years after he was refused permission, it's still there. Another one locally is a car wash business which has also been going for 10 years. They put in a retrospective application for it, then withdrew it, and didn't reapply but just carried on with their business. The council know that when the railway is upgraded, the car wash will have to go as the land will be built on, so they obviously can't be bothered to chase it up.


The only time it is likely to cause an issue is if you come to sell, in which case you remove it.

baxio

That's worth knowing. Presumably if I appeal it (which costs nothing) and it fails it's still the councils job to enforce it?

And you'd get a warning letter first before they did decide to take action?