Help - should I contact the planning department?

[Lou197]

Our neighbours have built some sort of outside kitchen right next to our fence. It is a massive gazebo with extractor funnels on the top belting out smoke and cooking smells. We live in a small village on a terrace street and our garden slightly looks over theirs so now our view is of this gazebo and funnels. We live in a conservation area and I am pretty sure they did not apply for planning permission. So we don't have to look at this we are considering planting a hedge but actually as they have been cooking outside loads in the last week and having their friends in the garden (we are in tier 2) going forward and esp in the summer it will get to the point where we won't be able to enjoy our garden due to the smoke and fumes.

My question is if I contact the planning department to see if they did apply for planning (or don't need to) would my neighbours be told that I have contacted them? The husband is quite aggressive and it could be a massive problem going forward.

So...

YABU - mind your own business
YANBU - contact the planning department

If it's right against your fence, could that be considered a fire risk?

You can just look online. Go to yoyr local authority website a d look at the planning section. Search by postcode. You will see if they applied and what the outcome was.

You should be able to look on the online planning portal using their address to see if there was an application, they wouldn't know that you have looked.

Sounds like it'll be classed as a temporary structure and therefore not require planning and even if it was a full structure planning has changed and could be classed as permitted.

Check your local authority website and put a call in enquiring if it doesn't answer the question

Many thanks. They have def not applied for planning. Does anyone know if I call and the planning dept look into it, would they said I had raised it?

@Autumnchill

Sounds like it'll be classed as a temporary structure and therefore not require planning and even if it was a full structure planning has changed and could be classed as permitted.

Check your local authority website and put a call in enquiring if it doesn't answer the question

Not in a conversation area-different rules- vary by area

The smoke might be a matter for environmental health, too, like bonfires are if people have them frequently and they cause a nuisance.

Contact planning enforcement and ask to remain anonymous, also as has been advised report them to environmental health too. Good luck

Sorry @RelightMyPfizer is right, I missed the conservation part.

Just goggle your LA and planning and you can look at applications going back sometime, no registering just enter the postcode

Even in a conservation area I’m pretty sure you are still allowed a single storey extension up to 3m (or 4m if a detached house) under permitted development. You still need building regs but not planning permission

I would try environmental health too for the extractor pumping into your garden

Yes planning. My parents recently did this. Planning team at the local council came out, took photos and wrote the neighbors a letter telling them to remove it

In the first instance, if you put in a planning enforcement complaint, under data protection, they aren't allowed to give your details. So your neighbours will know someone complained but not who. They may very well be able to guess though.

If they then apply for restrospective planning permission and you write asking for it to be denied, at this point they'll be able to find out your details (and anyone else who asked for it to be denied).

The definition of “temporary structure”” varies between local authorities. Construction sites I’ve worked have needed planning permission for Portakabin offices because construction was due to take more than 2 years, but not in others. Having a extractor etc sounds “semi permanent” rather than temporary. Look on your local authority website, you can look at planning applications, and probably make enquiries about whether a new structure needsPP?

Maybe the neighbours did it under permitted development?

As mentioned, building control and environmental health could be interested too.

They might be able to do it under permitted development rights. In some conversation areas these are revoked but not everywhere.

FYI on the local planning department. The planners nation wide are absolutely rammed at the minute. Don’t expect them to do anything quickly, it’ll likely take years for them to bring any kind of enforcement action. And probably months to even get an acknowledgment of a response to whatever you send them.

You might have more luck talking to the local conservation officer. Or if the flue is the problem then your local building control will probably be more helpful. There’s lots of rules about how tall a flue needs to be when it’s close to other buildings.

Agree that environmental health and building control are worth contacting too

Why don't you ring the council under the guise.of.doing this.yourself and ask what permission you would need?

Tell the planning department and they will come and have a look and see if it meets the regulations. Very simple and no need for your neighbours to know it was you (although they may figure that out themselves!)