To not want to allow neighbours access to put up solar panels?

[TheHorneSection]

The back of our neighbour’s house is the rear wall of our small courtyard garden. We’ve just received a letter from the council saying planning permission has been requested to put solar panels on their rear roof. This rear roof is a) about 10 foot at most from our floor to ceiling kitchen window, and level with our first floor so we can see the entire roof from our kitchen table, and b) seemingly inaccessible without them putting up scaffolding or gaining access through our garden.

They haven’t spoken to us about it, or tried to put letters through the houses they might guess back onto theirs, we’ve only heard through the planning department.

On the one hand, it’s solar panels, and these are good things. But on the other hand, they’ll completely fill our eyeline from the kitchen, and they haven’t asked about access yet.

Would I be a complete arse to tell them I’m really not happy and don’t want to provide access, or do I need to suck this one up for the greater good?

There is conflicting things said about glare.

Depending on the actual panels would depending on how good or bad they are.

Why would they ask you, before they have planning permission? If the council refuses them permission there's no reason to even raise the matter. And once they have planning permission, they need to find the money and a qualified contractor. Could be months away.

But it does seem a bit petty to say no. Solar is in everyone's interest. Just make sure you stipulate that the scaffolding must come back down within 48 hours.

Presumably the panels would only be on the top part of the roof? Any glare would be minimal as the angle of the sun shining on the panels is dynamic- it changes continuously.

The roof is level with the first floor of the properties behind, and these properties are three story town houses, so it is different from their roof being the same height as our roof.

I think I’d possibly have spoken to neighbours first before submitting the planning application but that’s just me, and quite possibly not the way most people would do it, so I’m happy to stand corrected there.

Never mind 'right to light', how about 'right to less light'?!

IMO you need to object to that PPA - you would have the most appalling glare into your window for most of the day!

That was my gut feeling given how close the properties are

We had solar panels installed recently. They put up the scaffolding at the front of the house and brought all the panels up that way.

Having seen your picture I really don't think it will make any material difference to your lives. After a few days you'll hardly notice them.

Don’t be a dick, OP. You’re looking for problems. Solar is a good thing and you should be thinking about it yourself.

Having seen the photos, just plant some trees in pots. It will look better.

I'd certainly be concerned about glare and would want more info. I have panels, but they don't affect neighbours due to our higher position. A neighbour across the road from our back garden (on a different road to us) has recently installed panels. Their house is lower than ours and they do sometimes reflect, but due to the angle they aren't a nuisance to us.

The other roof is miles away!!! I thought you meant like back to back terraces like you get in mining towns

Hi, you really should consider the glare aspect. My neighbours across the road have solar panels. At the weekend I like to open the curtains and sit in bed with a cup of tea. In summer I can't do this anymore because the reflection off the panels is so bright so I have to sit in bed on a glorious summer morning with the curtains shut. I'm very concerned about the environment and pro any kind of renewable energy, but I think the glare issue is something you shouldn't ignore. Perhaps ask them for a bit more information about the design of the panels, who makes them etc. I know bugger all about solar panels but perhaps you can get special anti glare types, who knows

The people in that house might have issues that can be significantly eased by having solar panels.

I think YABU to object on the basis of access, but I'd look into the glare issue more.

YANBU to not allow scaffolding in your garden, if it comes to it. Our neighbours used ours a few years back, I couldn't sit in the garden in the day, they left a load of mess and the scaffolding was up for ages. Never again.

Yes you would be a complete arse

Do they need access?
From your comments I assume you don't know the neighbour.

Out of curiosity I did a bit of googling. I wonder whether this company can advise you? Elsewhere on the website they mention a free initial consultation and also a glare calculator.

www.pagerpower.com/news/solar-panel-glare/

Looking at them wouldn't bother me. Access for scaffolding would, I often see damage to paving etc from scaffolding. I also wouldn't want anything that would need access in the future for maintenance etc.

Do your LA have a planning portal where you can access the supporting documentation? If so, I would read the pack and look at the dims.

Miles?! It is back to back, the strip of garden between our two back walls is only about 10 ft.

They’ve not long moved in so I don’t know them yet, and we are on different streets so don’t bump into them.

I don’t want to object purely to be a dick but it is very close and I think it’s acceptable to want to know more details about the size and location of the panels.

I’ll knock at some point this weekend or drop a friendly not asking if we can see more detailed plans so we have a better understanding of what they want to do.

Ours don't glare in the sunshine.

Sadly I don’t think we could get any trees that would be the required 15-20ft high to block the view?

That’s good to hear. If I’m able to I’ll ask for info on the panels they are putting up so we can read up about any potential glare.

If it goes ahead I hope they put netting all around the bottom of the panels or pigeons move in.