Unreasonable planning condition: forced to sacrifice our garden for unwanted parking spaces

FreeBear

Kiran said:

Hot water cylinders can be located in loads of different spaces, including your lost space if it is currently unused. The boiler being mounted on the wall could probably be taken of the plans and this would leave your garage the same size.

On the boiler front, do you need your cylinder if you have a small household? When it comes to moving a boiler it sometimes makes sense just to replace depending on age etc.

Boilers lose a surprising amount of heat through the casing - I've seen figures of 5% quoted in places. That wasted heat could be put to good use heating the house if the boiler remained internal.

A well insulated DHW cylinder will also have a heat loss, typically in the 60-80Wh when internal. As heat loss is a function of water temperature and ambient air temp, losses will increase when it is in an unheated space and outside temperatures drop.

Garages are unheated, and can get very damp during the winter months - Damp and electronics do not mix (I've had to repair some very expensive equipment due to condensation).

With all of the above in mind, I would not recommend putting a boiler & DHW tank out in a garage - However, with a loss of 1.6m, I'm guessing you are converting part of the garage in to a utility space that would benefit from some heating ?

One piece of advice when you move the boiler - Plan out pipework and where it would run ready for the day when a heat pump is installed (don't forget electrics too). This may mean putting ducting in under the floor big enough to take 28mm pipe plus insulation when the time comes. Do the work now, and it will save major upheaval in the future.

6am

Section62 said:

Could you clarify the BiB please - double yellow lines stop everyone (not just non-residents) parking.  Are the DYL's part of a controlled parking zone (CPZ) (which is something that would stop non-residents parking in 'resident-only' bays)?

Sorry for the confusion. I meant a single yellow line. The signs show that parking is restricted for certain vehicles at certain times. It says nothing about non-residents parking. The road has a single yellow line and parking bays, but it’s usually not busy. If I need to stop briefly, I can often find a free spot easily without using the driveway.

Section62

6am said:

Section62 said:

Could you clarify the BiB please - double yellow lines stop everyone (not just non-residents) parking.  Are the DYL's part of a controlled parking zone (CPZ) (which is something that would stop non-residents parking in 'resident-only' bays)?

Sorry for the confusion. I meant a single yellow line. The signs show that parking is restricted for certain vehicles at certain times. It says nothing about non-residents parking. The road has a single yellow line and parking bays, but it’s usually not busy. If I need to stop briefly, I can often find a free spot easily without using the driveway.

Ok, so if it is a CPZ (i.e. the bays say something like 'Resident permit holders only xx:xx - xx:xx') then there is a possibility the council might be willing to consider treating your property as a (quasi) 'car-free' development - in other words you agree that the occupiers will never be able to obtain permits to park on-street in exchange for being allowed to provide less than the minimum off-street parking.

TBH I've only seen this being allowed where the development has no parking at all, or parking for service vehicles only, but in principle there is no reason why an authority couldn't adopt the same approach for a property where the occupiers wanted fewer spaces.

The mechanism for doing this usually involves entering into a S106 agreement, for which you'd have to pay all the (considerable) legal costs, but it would probably be cheaper than installing a mechanical off-street parking solution that you don't really want.  I would though expect the S106 agreement to result in a significantly lower value for your property compared to the situation where you still had the ability to buy permits and/or had more off-street parking spaces.  A future buyer wouldn't necessarily be allowed to build the additional space and/or cancel the S106 agreement either.

The council may also refuse to consider this approach if they think the existing CPZ isn't restrictive enough.  They are not compelled to waive their parking standards even if you were willing to enter into a S106 agreement.

6am

FreeBear said:

Kiran said:

Hot water cylinders can be located in loads of different spaces, including your lost space if it is currently unused. The boiler being mounted on the wall could probably be taken of the plans and this would leave your garage the same size.

On the boiler front, do you need your cylinder if you have a small household? When it comes to moving a boiler it sometimes makes sense just to replace depending on age etc.

Boilers lose a surprising amount of heat through the casing - I've seen figures of 5% quoted in places. That wasted heat could be put to good use heating the house if the boiler remained internal.

A well insulated DHW cylinder will also have a heat loss, typically in the 60-80Wh when internal. As heat loss is a function of water temperature and ambient air temp, losses will increase when it is in an unheated space and outside temperatures drop.

Garages are unheated, and can get very damp during the winter months - Damp and electronics do not mix (I've had to repair some very expensive equipment due to condensation).

With all of the above in mind, I would not recommend putting a boiler & DHW tank out in a garage - However, with a loss of 1.6m, I'm guessing you are converting part of the garage in to a utility space that would benefit from some heating ?

One piece of advice when you move the boiler - Plan out pipework and where it would run ready for the day when a heat pump is installed (don't forget electrics too). This may mean putting ducting in under the floor big enough to take 28mm pipe plus insulation when the time comes. Do the work now, and it will save major upheaval in the future.

First, I will describe the problem and then the solution. Currently, our equipment is scattered: the boiler is in the roof with a gas pipe running through the house. We have a gravity-fed system with a cold water storage tank in the roof and a small hot water cylinder. I dislike this system because it is noisy due to the pump needed for water pressure, and the hot water runs out quickly.

We want to install a larger hot water storage system with mains pressure to eliminate the pump noise. An unvented cylinder seems to be a good fit. The garage already has some equipment installed, like a solar power inverter and battery, along with the gas and electricity meters. The plan is to use part of the garage to consolidate everything into one place, creating a sort of plant room. We also plan to insulate the area to prevent heat loss.

Is there anything wrong with this idea?

Section62

6am said:

The plan is to use part of the garage to consolidate everything into one place, creating a sort of plant room. We also plan to insulate the area to prevent heat loss.

Any reason why the front of the garage couldn't be extended by the same amount as being lost off the back?  Or would that encroach into one of the other parking spaces?

casper_gutman

The relevant bit of the planning guidance seems to be that your application for an extension "involves a significant increase in area" but in this instance there is no requirement to add spaces, it's just that the impact on parking is "a
material consideration" and "additional parking spaces may be sought". It sounds like they have to consider the case-specific impact. Adding more kitchen space will have no impact on parking, so it seems it must be the loss of the garage that's driven them to require extra spaces. The plant room-type area sounds sensible, but it does mean the garage will no longer be available as a parking space. The fact you didn't park there anyway is irrelevant - in theory, there was a parking space for a compact car. 

I'd say there were two obvious options: either (i) modify the plans to maintain the garage as a parking space or (ii) provide the parking the planners want to see. I'd probably go for option (ii). As @theoretica suggests, you could use grass grids to provide a parking area on a lawn. If you don't set the mower too low, they'll be all but invisible once everything's bedded in. Or if you don't fancy laying the area to grass you could plant other ground cover - creeping thyme, or chamomile, or whatever - to hide the grids. As long as there's nothing there to stop you driving a car onto the area if needed, you shouldn't be in breach of the planning conditions.

Yes, there would be some site prep needed before laying the grass grids, but the materials are relatively inexpensive (not free, but cheaper than a kitchen extension or a boiler!) and in the long term the cost is probably minimal compared to the cost and loss of property value of accepting a S106 agreement or being in breach of your planning conditions. If the builders are bring in a mini digger for the foundations then that would make short work of the site prep for grass grids. And if you're not planning to park there in practice, it won't matter if the base for the grids isn't as robust as it would need to be for frequent use. 😉

FreeBear

6am said: We want to install a larger hot water storage system with mains pressure to eliminate the pump noise. An unvented cylinder seems to be a good fit. The garage already has some equipment installed, like a solar power inverter and battery, along with the gas and electricity meters. The plan is to use part of the garage to consolidate everything into one place, creating a sort of plant room. We also plan to insulate the area to prevent heat loss.

Is there anything wrong with this idea?

Sounds reasonable.