To say NO! to the backyard bungalow builder's latest application?

[OhDoAdmitMrsDeVere]

Got a letter from planning today.

Neigbours finally got round to applying for planning for the humoungous fence they put up in the summer.

It is there to stop us seeing what is going on in the gym house they builit in their small urban back garden.

The fence is ugly and very tall. It is attached to the fence that we already have which is the regulation height so its is totally unecessary (apart from to act as a screen).

I dont like it, it impinges on my garden and my neighbours have behaved like total bastards over the bungalow that they should never have built.

What do I say in response to the letter. Are any of my lovely planning people around to advise on the wording?

If people are not familiar with the bungalow saga they can see pics in my profile.

No bat phone - just happened to be MNing while DH sorts DS' bath.

The fence is there to stop you seeing that people are living in the house right?

According to dh (architectural technologist) the flue at the side does not comply with fire regs (part b) - mrsmarjoriebanks I don't know your background but it sounds like you're the lady to help!

Dh's other suggestion was to have regular bonfires at the end of the garden [evil emoticon]

Hurrah for MissM.

I will certainly do that later. Ta very much

northern I cannot think of any other reason why they would put it up.
There is a 6 ft fence up already in very good order (we put it up). To add insult to injury they didnt put their fence up until after we had put up with hundreds of wankers in the back garden all summer.

So we had to put up with loss of privacy until they had finished and then decided they didnt want us seeing into their garden.

I hate them.

My garden is a mess now. I know its daft but I havent been able to go out there since they started all this. It took away all enjoyment and I couldnt stand being overlooked by lots of strangers. Plus they did a lot of dodgy overhead work with no safety precautions so it wasnt safe to let the kids out.

Consquently the garden was neglected all summer and I lost heart. I WANT MY GARDEN BACK!

I would say

The fence is a bulky and overdominant feature which has an adverse impact on your enjoyment of the rear garden and a detrimental impact on visual amenity.

If it has an impact on sunlight, then mention that.

Feel for you mrs devere. Some people [shrug]. Just no consideration.

YANBU at all, Mrs DeV. No advice but sending positive thoughts your way.

"imposing" "unsightly" and "overbearing" are all good planner-y words to use.

Loss of light to your plants is a right PITA but probably won't carry as much weight as if it was loss of light to your actual house.

HTH

Jesus - no way is that monstrosity a gym!

Could the planning enforcement team do surveillance to ascertain comings and goings?

I'm here :)

I'll have a look later MrsD and post again. You need to use the word amenity for sure

Blimey MrsD what a sight!

i thought we had it bad with our neighbour's severalshedscobbledtogethertoformasummerhouse construction.

Is the bungalow legal or is that a whole other issue?

Can you stuff something in the flue and smoke them out?

I have no idea how but you should definately do whatever you can to get that fence down.

Also you have beautiful children and ds2 had portage and I think the work portage visitors do is brilliant (I want to be one when ds3 is older but got to learn to drive first)

I really, really hope it is leaking.

And I really, really hope Karma exists.

I presume the fence in your photos is actually your (rather good fence) and that theirs is even higher?

Just as a matter of interest, did they every finish off that pipe or render the side wall?

PS, your little fellow's hair is just gorgeous .

Oh wow. What gorgeous children

And what a fucking massive bungalow (I've seen thread titles before but never actually clicked on them)

You are soooooooo not being unreasonable.

Fight it. Definitely.

You could maybe do an online search for appeals which are similar to strengthen your case? I'm a planner and stuff like this really gets my goat! What are they citing in the application as the reason for the height of the fence? It's typical to have a 6ft fence and anything higher in my view should require very good justification which clearly they don't have!

Thank you for all the comments about my yummy children.

Hi Jins!

Gonna have a look at this planning application on line.

Good idea on getting the wording of your letter right. Planning will only pay attention to letters of objection that deal with facts and that are not emotive.

Look on the local council's website and see what rules and regulations surround fence heights. Then see how the fence contravenes these regulations and put that in your letter of objection.

Letters of objection are posted on the council's website for all to see, so don't put anything in the letter that you wouldn't want your neighbours to read.

Good luck

I hope you are going to use the word "erection" a lot.

I'm sure you've already been through the hoops on thus one, but what about getting local press involved? National press, even? MP?

I have done loads of emails. It got to the point where I tried to get 'erection' in to them as many times as possible. I think the planning man caught on in the end.

It kept me sane

MN flash mob in MrsDeV's garden, with all our press contacts present.

MrsDV, unfortuantely I've nothing constructive to add but just wanted to send you positive thoughts and much respect - I remember your original threads about the fecking great bungalow and often wondered what had happened since - so sorry that its still ongoing - you are amazing for keeping your sanity and sense of humour through all of this! Hope you get a breakthrough soon (even if it is by way of a chainsaw through the fence!)

I didn't ever post on your previous threads, although I read them all with a mixture of shock, sympathy and anger on your behalf. So sorry to read that you've felt you've missed out on your garden time. Hopefully this ridiculous fence will come down to coincide with some nicer weather so you can get out there and enjoy it again. It made me think about this lovely climber we had in our last house, grew like buggery but was very pretty in the late summer...Indian Summer. Thought I'd mention it as I can't be of any help with the planning wording side of things - Good luck

I wouldn't know what to put but good luck! What happened to that pipe that was pointing out the side into your garden?

Anything you can say about it being "unsafe" (or other suitable words) will always get planners interested too OP.

As you have not been in your garden all summer and it has been very stressful etc etc what about the old Human Rights Law??