Planning Application - what else can I do / where else to go?

[CoCoaButter85]

I wonder if anyone working at the council/ planning could possibly advice what else I can possibly do in this case.

Long story short without giving too many details. We live in East Englad and have issue with a business in residential area. They haven't been operating in line with their planning application for a while now (it's impacting local community to the extent that some household are looking to move out). They have submitted amendment. We as a community are against it and expressed our concern about the amendment submitted and and have our local councillors support as well. So the decision will be with the councillors and not only planning committee.

But my concern is what else can we possibly do? There are about 25 households and we are unhappy about it. Do we contact local mayor? Newspaper? We have done a lot by now but I feel we have reached the end of the road by now in terms of where else we can possibly go.

Have you approached someone like a solicitor who deals in this kind of law?

You need to fight it on planning grounds and possible breaches of their existing permission. You can't for example all write in and say you don't like it, it's too noisy without being specific (not saying you will, but a lot of people do!). So, refer to your local plan, transport policies, etc and if possible have a diary of incidents you believe have broken their permission.

You're allowed to make as much noise as you like - local papers, MP, Councillors etc but ultimately no planning officer can go against planning law or they'll end up at appeal /high court and councils will do anything to avoid that. It may be that if it's deemed enough of an issue that it would go to full planning committee but every council handles this differently.

When is the determination deadline? Groups like yours can have successes but you've got to nail it on planning grounds. Good luck! (Planning consultation & engagement type person)

Have you submitted comments on the amendment?

They have to be based on the breaches.

To be honest, all you can do is hope that due process works in your favour.

As others have said, they will have to base their decision on planning grounds so you need to focus on these

@WestOfWestminster no, I haven't looked for any outside help apart from local councillor yet. That would mean I would have to find ways to fund it all myself.

@Neighneigh - that's a fair point of view. Appreciate planning needs to look into laws and regulations. What I did is analysed all the planning documentation, took photo evidence and build a case referencing to planning documentation. I don't think everyone went to the same extent as I did, but at least it is obvious that it's not just 1 household that is affected. There are at least 20 household unhappy with it.

@JuneOsborne - councillor confirmed that it's not just planning but also our local councillors that are going to make a decision. So I really hope this is a positive thing.

@SweetSakura understand. It feels that we have done everything we could at this point. It's probably not worth raising more noise / running any public campaign if at the end of the day it has no impact on the final decision

Former planning officer here. Sounds like you have been very thorough. Has the Councillor been to your house and therefore got a good feel for how you are affected?
Has the Planning officer visited too?
Hopefully other residents have objected at some level?
I think you have posted before about your situation? And environmental health were involved too? If it wasn't you, then make sure that the planning officer has consulted with the EHO as part of the consideration of the application.
There really isn't much else you can do. Are you allowed to speak at the planning committee meeting? Some Councils have a procedure which enables this so do ask your Councillor if this is possible.

List all your objections, with proof if you can.

Remember to include

additional road traffic/ parking problems

waste disposal -commercial waste should not be in domestic bins

noise and other environmental issues, smells etc.

use of external buildings eg sheds, are they joined up to water, electricity, sewers.

Ask about insurance requirements, public liability, council tax.

Have you invited your ward councillors to a site visit to see/ hear/ experience for themselves?

@Seeline yes, I did post about it a while back. And indeed did very thorough research (only to discover more breaches with existing application) And no, @viques I did not invited neither the councillor nor planning to witness it for themselves. I had no idea this is something you can possibly do.

I should ask councillor to see if I could represent the case. there's a lot of us unhappy about it. I promised everyone that at the very least we'll be heard, so feel responsible now to make sure that our community's concerns are represented properly now.

Have proof for everything (phone running out of space :DD )

I feel that if not me, nobody else will fight for our community's interests. I think it is very unfair for a business to operate the way it currently does. But tbh, I have a moments where I just want to tell my husband to sell the house and get away from all this..

Definitely see if you can get a Councillor from the planning committee to visit your property.
The Planning officer's report to the committee should be available on the website before the meeting happens so have a good read and make notes of anything you don't agree with or appears to be wrong. Bring that to the attention of the officer and your local Councillor before the meeting.
If you can speak at the meeting, you will probably only have 3 minutes or so, so write down what you want to say to make sure you cover as much as possible.

I agree with some of what’s been said, but there may still be more that you can do.

What are the enforcement officers doing? Have you reported the breach to them?

It will help if you can give some info about the specific breach. Is it a condition of the planning decision notice that has been breached?

Look at the decision notice - beneath each condition should be reasons for the planners imposing the conditions. Try and make sure your arguments ‘speak’ to those reasons.

It may also be relevant and helpful for you to say when the original planning permission was given. If it was quite a long time ago, policies might have been refreshed since. What’s the date of the Local Plan?

How long ago did they start breaching the planning consent? (Sorry if I missed earlier info on this, but it’s important as enforcement on conditions is time limited and needs to consider other factors as well)

If 20 of you are unhappy why would you need to fund any legal advice yourself? Could you not share the cost between whoever is willing?

Depends on the type of business. If you have a complaint about the operation then submit it to the planning authority and any bodies (such as Environment Agency, Defra etc) whose statutory guidelines are being breached or impacted. MP might be worth a shout too, but contact them directly not just as a cc.

If it's going to Development Control Committee, ask to speak. Maybe get a neighbour to request to speak too to cover different points as time is v restricted per person. Try and get someone from your Town Council or your Mayor to speak against too. Get your neighbours to all write objections based on material planning considerations.

Contact every member of DCC with your case outlined and invite them to come for a site visit before the committee. They may or may not.

Good luck!

We had an unwanted business attempt to build in our neighborhood. They would have needed a few serious waivers to do so. We did what you are doing; rallied the troops. Attended and spoke at every meeting. Figured out who else would be impacted and contacted them. Started a petition.

In the end they supported us. And when something similar arose, we hardly had to say a word, they denied it immediately.

Out of pure nosiness I really want to ask what the business is?

I'm trying to think of a business that could make 25 households so unhappy that some are considering moving...a pub with a really noisy garden and gigs, a club, a dog kennel with really barky dogs, a place where they burn piles of old car tyres (do they exist), an intensive farming pig shed, a sex shop...

Ours was a proposed dialysis clinic. Really inappropriate for the site for many reasons including traffic, parking, environmental concerns. They needed a bunch of waivers to make it happen.

I'm assuming that the business submitted a previous application and that this was approved and there were conditions attached to the approval decision?

Have they now applied for a discharge of conditions? Or submitted a new different application?

Without specific details, it's difficult to advise. If you're happy to, send me a DM, I'm happy to have a look and see if there's anything I can advise. Planning is a funny old area....Officers can recommend one outcome but if an application goes to committee, members can (and do) approve an application which was recommend for refusal.

(I've worked in Planning for 20 something years)

hello everyone,

apologies did not get back for a while. I had IVF egg collection done in between so lots was going on lately.

not to be too outing but business includes HGV's delivering goods at early hours in the morning (at reversing in the car park sometimes) and lots of forklifts with a lot of reversing noise. so it feels you are constantly next to a building site.

here's bit of an update if anyone is still following. the application amendment was refused pretty much spot on on the grounds I thought they would refuse it on. the petition has now been presented to the local council. it will be investigate by Directorate and results presented in a couple of months where I will be invited to speak at. anything I need to be aware of based on this? (never faced situation like this before)

since the site opened teh species of birds, number of bees has dropped significantly. is there anyone I can complain about?

also, the site doesn't follow H&S regulations (lifting humans on forklifts without helmets to pick stuff up). I have photo evidence on this. where can I go with this?

You can contact the council's planning enforcement team if the application was refused (and they aren't appealing the decision) and they are carrying out activity they don't have permission for or is contrary to their permission eg operating outside of approved hours or reversing vehicles outside site etc.

I don't understand what you mean about results and Directorate?

You won't be able to prove the bees and birds have been directly impacted by activity without detailed ecological reports, especially if you don't have a baseline of population numbers prior to the activity.

@Hiddendoor - so I was told there will be a special Directorate set up to investigate the petition and so called directorate will present the report/results in a couple of months

I probably didn't make myself clear. The application amendment has been refused/ council did not approve. I'm in touch with planning on a weekly basis trying to get them to look into this but apparently they are very short staffed which doesn't help

Yes, won't be able to prove on birds/ bees. It's just my word that's it

HSE/Environmental Health at local council will be interested in safety breaches on site. They may well need an operating licence for certain activities.

Is there a local wildlife organisation who can assess the impact. There may be an environmental assessment and conditions as part of planning process, monitored by whichever authority it was determined by . Have you spoken to a local councillor?

Could you clarify what the petition is asking the council to do?