Sub-dividing their plot no planning?

espresso84

Hello

Hello I was hoping for some advice. We are the first house on a long road. We are number 2. Opposite us is number 1 - except it’s not actually opposite - it’s opposite number 4. Directly opposite us is the very long garden , to the side of number 1. Their garden must be 200 foot plus. It’s massive.

What appears to be happening is number 1 has been sold, and within a few weeks a brand new perimeter fence has been erected all around their house. Fine. Except they have reduced the size of their garden now to about 25 foot - leaving a huge area of 175 foot which has now been fenced off. They have in effect divided the plot.

Thought that was odd when we first saw it was happening

Now - the garden which was remaining was densely populated with trees - like an orchard. It backs onto a large wooded public footpath and area too.

Over the last 2 weeks this area has been completed cleared. All those amazing old trees gone. And now it’s been fenced off too.

Clearly to build a house.

They have also started to dig channels clearly for utilities, all over both plots of land.

And the whole area now has been surrounded by wooden hoardings.

So everything points to potentially rebuilding the existing house and building one / two new houses in the old garden.

Except no sign of any planning permission?

It seems a surprising amount of work to do without any approved permission?

Also - I think I am going to protest when the planning eventually comes through - but I don’t know on what grounds. Fundamentally I have a concern about traffic on what is a 40mph road and potential for accidents during construction but also post - when cars turn into the new houses drives - being the first houses on the road and when cars are accelerating into the road etc.

But also - it’s completely spoiled our view - we now see woods - soon we will see houses. Which will overlook us.

Am I worrying unnecessarily and am I being unreasonable wanting to fight this and wanting to ensure they have the right planning in place?

Doozergirl

Go and politely speak to people across the road. Then you'll find out what they're up to

The loss of a view isn't a material planning reason for an objection:

New driveways are required to have a particular 'visibility splay' for cars when turning out. My friend had an entire application turned down on the sole basis of an inadequate visibility splay - despite it being a current driveway. Their plot is narrow, there is no pavement and there is a bend and a neighbour's hedgerow blocking the full view to one side.

Required splays are laid out in Manual for Streets, I think, and based on the traffic speed. It would be a material planning objection if it fails. The question is - does it fail?

My new house can't fail on that because the drive is perpendicular to a straight road and we can pull an entire car onto the pavement and see clearly up and down the 40mph road for yonks.

Presumably you've checked the planning portal?

Aylesbury_Duck

Surely there must be something on the planning portal if the work is that substantial?

Anyway, as Doozergirl says, you have to pick your reasons for objection carefully. Complaining about the loss of view is no good. As the saying goes, if you want to keep the view, buy the view, which in this case would have involved offering to buy a chunk of the massive garden yourself. Disruption during construction isn't valid either, although they would be expected to show what methods and measures they are taking to minimise this.

espresso84

Thanks for the pointers.
I will need to look carefully at the plans when they emerge as I think the most likely basis for objection is about the driveway and road access. I understand about loss of view etc.

I check the planning portal daily - definitely nothing there.

Should I reach out to my local planning officer to see what’s happening? And yes - I will try and catch the builders to ask what’s happening!

Doozergirl

I don't see any reason why you shouldn't contact the planning office either.

Davesnave

espresso84 wrote: »

Also - I think I am going to protest when the planning eventually comes through - but I don’t know on what grounds. Fundamentally I have a concern about traffic on what is a 40mph road and potential for accidents during construction but also post - when cars turn into the new houses drives - being the first houses on the road and when cars are accelerating into the road etc.

How would this differ from you turning into the same road at roughly the same point, assuming your house has vehicular access?

PasturesNew

If they feel confident they'll get planning, e.g. if they've done this before, and if they have access to cheap labour and/or DIY, it's possible they've gone ahead with the clearing/footings digging while they're drawing up plans with their architect.

Some people would look at that big garden and think "No way, if it was possible it'd have been done"; others look and think "I wonder if ...." and others will look at it and say "I KNOW I can bang 1-2 or more in there as I've done this before".

edgex

As you say there's been no sign of a planning application (you've checked online?), contact the local planning office.

Mistral001

You need to go to the planning office in person. Planning Permission might have been granted years ago and details of the Planning Application is no longer available online.

Doozergirl

Mistral001 wrote: »

You need to go to the planning office in person. Planning Permission might have been granted years ago and details of the Planning Application is no longer available online.

Nope. Planning permission expires after three years!

Mistral001

Doozergirl wrote: »

Nope. Planning permission expires after three years!

Yes that is correct. What is your point?

PS. My point was that many people think that planning permission application details stay up forever on the internet, but they do not.