Planning application - how to stop it from going ahead

[BandyButter83]

Received a letter from our local council about changes to existing commercial site next door and my heart has dropped to my knees...

We have Neighbour consultation date set and can send comments to it. What do I need to do in order to stop it from going ahead? I'm happy to pay money to a specialist (I don't know who, a private planner, a lawyer?) to look into it. But I don't know if this would achieve anything. Where do I start?

I don't want to give too many details but they have not been complying with their initial application which has caused a great amount of grief and general disturbance (ongoing noise in early hours of the morning, shouting etc.) It took more than 6months for me to finally sort out the situation and only had about 3 months of relative peace and I'm afraid this will bring back the same old nightmare. I seriously don't know what to do if it goes ahead as we'll have to look into moving houses it was that bad. So stakes are very high

We had the pub opposite apply to go from 11pm close, to 2am close every night, but 4am on "special days". Special days defined as bank holidays, any major sporting events, up to 14 Saturday nights, and several other days I can't remember, but it added up to being more than every other weekend. And they wanted live music on those dates too.

I opposed it in person, having written a letter and answered all his arguments at the hearing:
Noise was kept to a minimum when they left (photo of gathering outside pub after closing time). No taxis beeping horns when they came to pick up (gave timings of horn from previous weekend-around 8-10).
They also said they made sure they kept the doors closed, and I showed photos showing them open.
I also showed evidence that the last "live" music event they had overran by 90 minutes after their licence.
etc.
They lost. Had a nice chat to the landlord afterwards and said that I wasn't opposed in principle, however the noise at 11pm normally was at the disturbing level plus the sound while it was open was clearly audible in my house.
After that the landlord was great. He made sure the doors were closed, and went out himself to ask taxis not to beep their horns etc. I was impressed by that, and would probably not have opposed it if he'd reapplied, but he didn't while we lived there which was a good few years later.

What sort of site? Industrial, warehousing, business?
What are they applying for?
Is the application the result of enforcement action?

Are you the only residential property?

The main thing to object to will be anything that will have an impact on your 'amenity' eg loss of privacy, noise and disturbance, unsocial working hours, dust or smells, etc.
Also object to anything affecting the wider area eg lack of parking, highway safety, impact on the character of the area if primarily residential, design of any new building if relevant etc.
There should be a link in the Council website to the planning policies used to determine applications. You need to look for the Local Plan and see if there are any policies relating to the specific form if development proposed and then quite any conflicts with the policies.
Speak to your local councillor too and get them to help.
If you're looking for professional representation you need a planning consultant that is RTPI registered.
If you want to give more details I might be able to suggest more.

Read the details on the LA planning website of what grounds of objections they accept (such as loss of light) and what they reject (such as loss in financial value). Structure your written objection along these lines and make it really clear which legitimate category each of your objections falls into. Don't rant, keep it reigned in to just the areas they accept and come across as a reasonable and informed person.

Also if the consultation event doesn't give you all you need, ring up the planning office and ask to speak to someone. They may well give you some pointers. We had an officer offer to come out and look at the view from our window so they could understand the impact on our property. It's not a foregone conclusion that the planning permission will be secured, but you maximise your chances by looking at the rules and playing the game. Moaning with your neighbours at the event will not achieve much. It's a bit like taking an exam - you need to read the question carefully and pay attention to the mark scheme.

Write your objection in "comments". Try to look at "conservation aspects", that is if you are in a conservation area. Also "noise nuisance" etc.
Here are some of the popular reasons for objecting to a planning application:• A neighbour’s extension or even a new factory
• Loss of light or overshadowing to our property
• Loss of privacy
• Traffic and noise increase
• Design, appearance and materials
• Access restriction

Have a look at any conditions of their current usage or license. We had a business nearby try to extend their opening hours a few times, and the restaurant next door to them, but all the original objections to the first time were on record along with notes in their previous applications from the council. Was really helpful in putting our case together

Just wanted to say quick thank you for all your ideas and support 🌺

There's quite a bit of research for me to do (I'm not from planning background so things might not be as straight forward) which I will get onto during the weekend and will get back with more commentary now. Staying positive for now!

I totally agree with @Dillydillydaydream and @DandledASandle . Investigate what are acceptable grounds for objection. Keep it factual. Provide evidence. Don't get emotional, don't rant.

If you want to hire professional expertise, you want a planning consultant.

Councils will take objections more seriously if from multiple neighbours, my previous area had a threshold of 5 so garner support from others.

Having recently tried objecting to my neighbours development, I wasn't successful, however there were over 15 households objecting and every single one was supposedly covered by 'planning conditions ' most of which have been breached 🤦

Things I've learned:
I paid a planning specialist to write my letter - it was about £180 3 years ago and it was crap, very vague and didn't reference the local plan.
Get a local person, ensure where possible to counter the argument against the councils own local plan as well as the national plan.

Make your objection easy to read, use bullet points, as others have said be factual.
Also keep an eye out for updated plans and documents, consider how any changes will or won't help you and don't be afraid to write in again to highlight new issues.

Check the documents are factual, the plans submitted by my neighbours were not to scale and they even tried including my garden hedge within their own planting scheme and placing a restriction on my hedge. Plannings response when I objected was they take the plans submitted on 'good faith'

Consider what isn't in the application - it turns out our neighbor omited LOTS which is technically covered under permitted development. When you combine the huge changes with their application PLUS all the permitted development it's created huge issues for us.

Be specific in your requests. You're fighting to stop but also add limitations IF it goes ahead.
Eg neighbors said the farm access road will be grass matting.
It's now a solid road
The planning conditions/ application didn't specify the material they were to use, so enforcement say nothing can be enforced. Every little thing that might impact you, you want to insist is covered by conditions so they can't sneak in extras or changes.

Be sure to reference the previous complaints, I assume the environmental team were involved? Contact them and make them aware as they should also be responding to the application

Having recently tried objecting to my neighbours development, I wasn't successful, however there were over 15 households objecting and every single one was supposedly covered by 'planning conditions ' most of which have been breached 🤦

You need to report this, you don't have to put up with it if they've breached conditions

One more thing, you can't object to the disturbance caused by building works, but consider what clauses you'd like in place IF successful.
Again, from a harsh lesson, the 'privacy' treatments our neighbor should be putting in to protect our amenity is required before the development comes into use.
1 we've had 7 months of builders having full visibility into our home and garden (including 2 bedrooms)
2 the owner is now using their barn at weekends for construction... enforcement claim as it's a 'stable' and no horses are in it, it's not being used currently as per the application so they don't have to add the privacy screening.

We've paid out to put up construction mesh which helps to a degree but is also incredibly unsightly in our garden. Had it been on the development side it would have been far less of an eyesore, but I also disagree to me paying for this - so think about what might make your life easier during the construction phase outside of the traditional working hours clauses

@weinerdog enforcement are well aware.
They are inviting the applicants to submit a retrospective application to legalise the development at the end, but have already stated if the neighbours don't. They won't pursue this.
To put it in context some thing happened in 2018, breach identified, they were told to apply for planning, they didn't and 6 months later enforcement said they won't take action.

Oh no... Enforcement can be unreliable, it's a shame really. Definitely times when they should be doing more

This is not so. If a single objection raises a material planning issue, it will be taken into account when the application is determined. Planning is ultimately a balancing act and the objection will be considered alongside all other relevant matters. In some cases a legitimate objection may be outweighed by positives, and permission granted.
The Council also has to consider the likelihood of an Appeal being made if they refuse PP. Defending an Appeal costs public money, so the Council needs to feel that they would stand a good chance at winning an Appeal. Inspectors also have the power to award costs against Council's if they find that the Council cannot defend their decision to refuse.
The number of objections is not really relevant except that some Councils have rules which mean if a certain number are received the application has to be determined by Committee rather than being delegated to officers, but the application will still be determined using the same policies etc.
Applications which receive no objections at all are still refused if there is a conflict with policies.

If you have a parish or town council, contact them. They will also be consulted.
Check what the Council's policies are - if you can refer your objection to where it doesn't meet policies it will carry far more weight.

Spent all morning going through documents and researching what they have submitted so far.

@DandledASandle -Read the details on the LA planning website of what grounds of objections they accept (such as loss of light) and what they reject (such as loss in financial value). Structure your written objection along these lines and make it really clear which legitimate category each of your objections falls into. Don't rant, keep it reigned in to just the areas they accept and come across as a reasonable and informed person. - This is useful. I didn't look into this while doing my research this morning. I'm trying to find it on LA Planning page but only thing I am remotely able to relate to is Planning Policy and Strategy section. Where would usually 'grounds of objections' section be located?

@Livinghappy I am contemplating my strategy how to encourage others as well. Given we have few older residents my plan is to contact different areas of neighbourhood and outline a number of different matters people can relate to. Include stamped envelopes for elderly who are unlikely to use emails.. I'm thinking of contacting local community Group too. It's only about 10 houses that are directly impacted and it is serious issue for, however, other neighbourhood could potentially object due to appareace, design and overall character of the area

did you go door to door or used letters? Our community is not that close so I think a letter might be bit more straight forward approach and saves me from visiting the whole street... and also neighbouring street

@WhyCantPeopleBeNice don't want to be too outing but what they have submitted already is not accurate. They are basing their assumptions on how it is going to affect local area on site plan that is not what actually is happening (I have plenty of photographic evidence). Hopefully that's a point against accepting the application already

@Seeline - thank you, this is all very helpful. I am already talking to my local councillor. Just need to find out where the below on the website is:

There should be a link in the Council website to the planning policies used to determine applications. You need to look for the Local Plan and see if there are any policies relating to the specific form if development proposed and then quite any conflicts with the policies.

@MargaretThursday - well done on being successful! Gives me hope that this is all very doable!

It will be in the Planning Policy section you referred to earlier.

Does the proposal involve new building works to extend an existing commercial site?
Or is it extending it by extending opening hours etc?
If you can give an idea of the type of use I can help further.
This link will tell you what sort of things you can object to https://www.planningportal.co.uk/services/help/faq/planning/about-the-planning-system/what-are-material-considerations

@Seeline - thanks for getting back and sharing the link. I will get back to you privately. Cautious it will be too revealing otherwise