Help I’ve put a fence up and didn’t realise I needed permission

mark55man

yes I know, but OP is faced with having to undo the work now, or after an appeal. 

As the letter gives the appeal as an option then why not, its a shot to nothing.  The worst that can happen is OP gets told to undo it later and the best is that some agreement is reached.  Its not like its costing significant personal or council resources to run it though (certainly no more than it would have cost had OP applied in the first place)

Davesnave

They won't be able to appeal for free, otherwise we'd all skip planning and wait to be found out!

The cost might be quite marginal though.

Personally, I can imagine ways to dissuade people using the land for dog walking. It's a British thing, thinking one can only garden by first sticking a wall or fence around an area. There are numerous examples of people enhancing localities by making spaces like the one described more attractive than just 'grass,' but some folks don't seem to take this on board.

Jonesya

If you can't have a fence then plant some shrubs, pick some thorny varieties with berries for the birds - pyracantha, Hawthorne, berberis, beech looks nice and holds its leaves through winter, some regusa roses, it'll look nice, deter the dogs and be good for wild life.

Winter is a good time to plant cheap hedging whips, so  something you can do later this year.

Freya85

I may have to cut it to a metre high or even take it down if it come to sight lines, I’m really gutted if I do. I’m hoping the bit along the back garden that we have only moved just over a metre as it was blocking the manhole cover they will allow us to keep. I will ring planning tomorrow and see what they say. I didn’t know about this restriction and we had multiple quotes from landscapers and none of them mentioned this either. 

ElephantBoy57

Freya85 said:

Thanks for your replies, the land is ours it’s on our title deeds it’s just that we have gone up to the pathway and I didn’t know that planning law states this should be no more than 1 metre high. I thought all fences had to be 1.8 metres. I am going to ring the council tomorrow, but thought it would be worth applying for permission before I have to take it all down. 

The difference is your fence is on a corner next to a road.

DevilDamo

Freya85 said:

we had multiple quotes from landscapers and none of them mentioned this either. 

Unfortunately the majority are not aware or even care about the rules or regulations. It is ultimately up to you as the homeowner to check out any restrictions.

theoretica

The first thing you need to find out from the council is whether they are objecting to the fence at all or to it being over 1m.  If there is nothing in your deeds, and you aren't in a conservation area then the objection is probably just to the height. 1m would keep the dog walkers off perfectly well.  What is the man hole?  Presumably you are OK with occasional workmen walking in to use it?

Freya85

theoretica said:

The first thing you need to find out from the council is whether they are objecting to the fence at all or to it being over 1m.  If there is nothing in your deeds, and you aren't in a conservation area then the objection is probably just to the height. 1m would keep the dog walkers off perfectly well.  What is the man hole?  Presumably you are OK with occasional workmen walking in to use it?

I’ve no idea what the man hole is for I’m guessing drains. It’s not an issue for workmen to come in to access it. Before they would have had to take the fence apart to get to it. I’ve come round to the idea that if I need to cut it down then that’s what I’ll have to do and maybe put some pleached trees around as I like the look of those. 

Freya85

DevilDamo said:

Freya85 said:

we had multiple quotes from landscapers and none of them mentioned this either. 

Unfortunately the majority are not aware or even care about the rules or regulations. It is ultimately up to you as the homeowner to check out any restrictions.

I know it’s up to me to check but I’ve never heard of this before and a lot in my area have done this work recently, it never crossed my mind. I now know for next time, expensive lesson learned! Looks like I will be saving for plants now. 

Ant555

A house near me put up a 1.8m fence a couple of years ago and were told by the council it had to be removed for the same reasons you mention as they were on a corner.  It was originally a fence with a concrete base panel + a wooden panel on the top. 

Their solution was to remove the fence panels and sell them as almost new on facebook marketplace, leave the concrete base in place and use an angle grinder to cut the concrete posts down to the height of the base.  He did tell me that one option was to cut the concrete posts down and replace the panels with smaller ones so it was only 1m high but he wanted a higher barrier.  As council said a natural barrier was ok (cant remember the exact term) they decided to plant some quite tightly packed greenery just behind the 1ft high concrete panels and in a couple of years it has now grown to not far off the height of the original fence.
You have already mentioned plants and I guess there may be occasional maintenance with that solution but I thought id mention this as it doesnt seem to have taken long for the one near me to have grown.