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purplepixi

Discussion Removed

lincroft1710

The planning authority can most definitely attach conditions to a planning consent. I've seen some quite restrictive ones in the past.

oldbikebloke

Q: are planning dept demands of an arbitrary nature, particularly in conservation areas?
A: Yes, most certainly

Q: Do they have the power to do that?
A: Yes they do 

Q: Can such conditions be overturned?
A: yes, you can appeal https://www.gov.uk/appeal-planning-decision

Q: will the appeal succeed?
A: who knows, probably not in a conservation area, as the snowflakes will see it and get on their high horses to exert pressure which a "democratic" council cannot ignore

PS: they are not limiting your working days, they are limiting the number of times visitors attend your premises as such traffic clearly has an impact on the conservation "area".

Savvy_Sue

So is this correspondence with someone in the planning dept? 

It's possibly worth asking them whether that limitation on your working days could be negotiated or mitigated, eg by limiting the total number of hours pw in which customer appointments can be made, but not limiting them to certain days of the week. So if you were only seeing customers Tuesday to Thursday, that's 21 hours (let's say) for appointments: assuming that's a higher number of appointment hours you'd be willing to offer, could you say that customers will only attend the premises for 15 hours per week? 

Someone like oldbikebloke would know better than me whether that's likely to help. I suspect it depends on the official concerned. 

Plus, it's worth remembering that the official makes a recommendation. The decision is made by the councillors. Are you friends with yours? 

oldbikebloke

Savvy_Sue said:

Someone like oldbikebloke would know better than me whether that's likely to help. I suspect it depends on the official concerned. 

you overrate me !

I have had only one encounter with planning, when they required I install 6 foot high fencing on the boundary line for "visual amenity" reasons.

Said fence therefore had to be installed in the middle of an existing mature 8 ft high 4 ft wide hedge. When pointed out that would mean the destruction of a hedge that was much nicer (IMO) visual amenity than a cheap fence (all I could afford on top of the building works), they tried to fight it, but finally accepted common sense is more important than whatever box they had to tick to show they had actively considered the application.

purplepixi

Thank you for the responses. Yep the correspondence is from the guy who is sorting it all at the planning department. I think my main issue is why moving from my house (where I use 3 rooms for my business), to 10 yards down the garden would be any different. I'll still be working from home, just not spread over multiple rooms. 

I'm not sure why the move to the garden in what is essentially a shed, will require me to cut the days I see people. All seems a bit of crazy.

oldbikebloke

purplepixi said:

Thank you for the responses. Yep the correspondence is from the guy who is sorting it all at the planning department. I think my main issue is why moving from my house (where I use 3 rooms for my business), to 10 yards down the garden would be any different. I'll still be working from home, just not spread over multiple rooms. 

I'm not sure why the move to the garden in what is essentially a shed, will require me to cut the days I see people. All seems a bit of crazy.

surely you can see the principle at stake?
You have a standalone building which will now become a wholly business use premises in what is otherwise a purely residential setting. I am not saying there is any merit to their objections / attempted limitations, but they certainly have a point in planning law. The fact your neighbours don't care that an "office" has been set up next door is obviously to your favour, but you might not have been so lucky with neighbour relations so planning has to consider what would a neighbour say to a commercial business the other side of the fence.

limiting your days is I agree a cack handed way to go about it, and just smacks of a planner who really has no idea how to implement "control" of new businesses in such a planning setting.

there is also of course the future potential of a) you letting the building to someone else thereby transforming your garden into a separate centre of activity and b) the tax implications of a standalone exclusively business use premises when/if you sell up.

Mistral001

How do you know that the same planning restrictions will not be attached to you running the business from your own house?   There will be the same problem with regard to parking. 

Manxman_in_exile

purplepixi said:

Thank you for the responses. Yep the correspondence is from the guy who is sorting it all at the planning department. I think my main issue is why moving from my house (where I use 3 rooms for my business), to 10 yards down the garden would be any different. I'll still be working from home, just not spread over multiple rooms. 

I'm not sure why the move to the garden in what is essentially a shed, will require me to cut the days I see people. All seems a bit of crazy.

But did they know you were carrying on your business from home before?

Savvy_Sue

oldbikebloke said:

I have had only one encounter with planning, when they required I install 6 foot high fencing on the boundary line for "visual amenity" reasons.

Said fence therefore had to be installed in the middle of an existing mature 8 ft high 4 ft wide hedge. When pointed out that would mean the destruction of a hedge that was much nicer (IMO) visual amenity than a cheap fence (all I could afford on top of the building works), they tried to fight it, but finally accepted common sense is more important than whatever box they had to tick to show they had actively considered the application.

 
My experience is equally limited, but with a result which is in a way similar. We applied for change of use, from an unregistered HMO (house in multiple occupation) to offices on the house next door to our charity's head office - which has never been a residential property. We had to argue the case, because while the council didn't want any more HMOs in the area, they did want more family homes, except that this wasn't ideal for a family home either. 

PP was granted, but with the proviso that we removed a shed from the front of the property - visual amenity. This is one of our much used bike sheds - and of course the council wanted us all cycling more. Said shed was hidden behind a privet hedge at the time, and was only every briefly visible as you walked past the front gate. 

This is very much not a recommended technique, but let's just say the shed is still there, and the hedge has gone (it died). Our immediate neighbours were unlikely to complain, but we took a gamble that no-one else would ever check. 

The OP's issue is that while his neighbours may not currently object, this can change - either different neighbours or a falling out in the future. And DH, running a different charity, did have a neighbour look up historic PP and complain that hours of business were not being adhered to. It wasn't difficult to get them changed, and those hours of business pre-dated DH's appointment to the charity so he had no idea they were in breach - but it could have turned nasty. 

Savvy_Sue

I am wondering if it is worth seeking advice from a local planning consultant? Obviously you'd need to check fees and agree terms very carefully, and possibly you'd be told - hopefully for no charge! - "nope, they get tricksy like that, they do it a lot, not a lot of point arguing this one." 

Would be important to check what they've been involved in lately, I think they'd be mentioned on planning applications?