20 foot decking terrace - Planning?

Mistral001

YoungBlueEyes said:

If it were me I'd really want to carefully take up the post, knock on neighbour's door and say "you left this in my garden", hand it back to him and walk away. All being filmed by a friend if poss. Not aggressive, no attitude, calm and polite.

I don't know if it would be wise to do that though, I suspect going through the proper channels is the right answer.

You suspect right.  The "man in the pub" solution in the first paragraph rarely works.

victor2

@springmagpie, are you prepared to show some photos of what has been done? It sounds horrendous, and I can't be alone in having difficulty visualising it.

YoungBlueEyes

Mistral001 said:

YoungBlueEyes said:

If it were me I'd really want to carefully take up the post, knock on neighbour's door and say "you left this in my garden", hand it back to him and walk away. All being filmed by a friend if poss. Not aggressive, no attitude, calm and polite.

I don't know if it would be wise to do that though, I suspect going through the proper channels is the right answer.

You suspect right.  The "man in the pub" solution in the first paragraph rarely works.

The things you want to do and the things you should do are rarely the same. I’d be sorely tempted though. 

I’m am not suggesting you should do that OP!

theoretica

Isn't there also something in planning permission that anything more than 2.5 m tall must be a certain distance from the boundary?  If 'decking' rules aren't getting you anywhere, that bit might be worth searching for.

ThisIsWeird

springmagpie said:
The neighbours at the bottom of the garden cant be happy as it's directly in line with their bedroom windows! 

Time to have a chat with that neighbour too? And is there a neighb to the other side of you who could also be affected? They might not be aware of what could be about to happen to their privacy. Un-emotive and factual; "Wondering if you are aware of, and have concerns about, what X is doing in their garden? For us, it'll mean a loss of privacy to xyz if they are allowed to build it. I've tried to talk to them about it, but they're evasive and not very approachable, so I have asked the Planning dept to investigate. If you have concerns, it may be worth  you doing this too. If it isn't permitted under P, but they still get away with it, it'll certainly affect our garden and privacy, and - from what I can see - yours possibly even more so...'

Also, write down a chronological log of everything that's happened until now, and keep it updated. Eg:
"Xth 9am. Became aware of construction taking place. Frame for decking appears to be xm tall at end of garden. Some posts clearly on our land. Spoke to neighb, but their attitude made it hard to get clear answers. Comments included, "£&+(+ gddhh gfghh..."

Etc.

 Depending on how this unfolds, you may want to be able to demonstrate things like that you did make contact, they were evasive/ grumpy/ reluctant to engage/ whatevs, etc whatever the facts are. But try and be verbatim as much as possible. And keep updating the report.

Chase up planning. Ask your LP what else you should be doing.

J63320

Why not try contacting one of your local Councillors? With local elections coming up, they ought to be proving they’re worth your vote.

springmagpie

Here are some photos, he has now "finished" and removed the parts from our garden, you can see where he has had to cut a square out of his original plans. This thing is huge, impacts our view (which sadly I know we don't have a right to) but it towers over the lower section of our garden.

victor2

It is a bit of a monster, but I don't see how they are overlooking your garden, or directly into your bedrooms.

I'm no expert, but would have thought it needs planning permission. Will be interesting to hear what others think. Do please keep us updated with the outcome.

springmagpie

They have only put the fence up today, and cut out the square so before that could see in. Because of the slope of our garden the "decked" area is level with our bedrooms

It's huge and from the footings to the top of the fence is about 20 foot

mi-key

It is massive, but it may be a toss up between losing part of the view and not having them looking in on you.

I'm sure there is some rule that you can't build anything above the roof level of your house, but don't think would apply here ?

It is probably worth contacting the planning department, but then the danger is they say it is fine, and you annoy the neighbour by reporting it