AIBU to complain about neighbours turning adjacent land into a lorry park and bonfire?

[Redmistdecended]

Long time lurker, first time poster, please be kind.

We moved into our new property about three months ago. It’s a lovely house, and to the right-hand side is a large patch of grass. When we viewed the house, I was already imagining spending hot summer days out there with my DD, as we don’t have a front garden.

On moving day, however, there was an 18-wheeler parked on the land. The owner came over and rather gleefully informed me that he’d bought the land and was turning it into a car park for his monster trucks.

I honestly feel like we should have been told about this before buying the house, but obviously that’s water under the bridge now. What I wasn’t prepared for was quite how much of an impact it would have.

Over the first couple of weeks there was a huge amount of work done. They’ve created a large mound of earth, which now blows dust into our house, put up what I think is pretty ugly Harris fencing and planted a load of trees, which have subsequently all died. There are now large vehicles parked right up against the edge of our drive, to the point that my view when pulling out is becoming obstructed.

They’ve also damaged/removed part of the fence at the back of our property. They’ve repeatedly said they’ll replace it, but it’s been weeks and nothing has happened.
The whole thing is now a complete eyesore, and I’m genuinely worried about what it’s doing to the value and enjoyment of our property.

Then last night was the final straw.

It was the hottest night of the year, and they decided to have a fire in their back garden. At first I assumed they were just burning a few bits and thought it would be over fairly quickly. But at around 11pm, when I was getting ready for bed, I looked outside and there was smoke absolutely billowing towards our house and directly into my two-year-old’s bedroom window.
I completely lost my temper.

I went through the broken section of the fence and confronted them. I was absolutely furious and, I’ll admit, I was swearing and called them disrespectful pricks. Not my finest moment, but after weeks of putting up with everything, seeing smoke pouring into my child’s bedroom at 11pm pushed me over the edge.
I’m now concerned that this isn’t a one-off, either. They’ve got a large pile of material next to our house and it looks very much like they intend to burn more of it.

So, what do I actually do here?

I’m thinking about contacting Environmental Health because of the smoke/dust, and I also want to find out whether the car park/monster truck use, earthworks, fencing etc actually have the necessary planning permissions.
I’m also wondering what, if anything, I can do about the damage to our fence and the effect all of this is having on our property.
I know I’ve been extremely emotional about it, and I’m probably too close to the situation now, so I’d really appreciate some practical advice about what avenues I should be looking at.
Am I completely overreacting, or is this something I should actually be taking up with the council/planning/environmental health?

And if there is any recourse with my solicitors regarding this eyesore, any help much appreciated.

AIBU - To start a war with my neighbours?

I'm pretty sure that kind of change of use would need planning permission which would have come up in your searches whilst buying. You can do a search yourself on your council's website to see if anything comes up. If there's nothing I think I would ring the council's planning department and describe what has happened and ask their advice.

Bump! Any help out there please?

What did they say when you confronted them?

Probably first step is to contact the council and see if he needs Planning Permission and does he have it.

I would definitely contact environment health and the coincil. I am not surebwhat else to suggest. You maybe need to do some research on what the usage of the land means from a planning permission perspective. It should have been thrown up in searches if there was a planning application. But generally if it's land and just being usd to park trucks there's not much you can do.
It may be worth trying to approach them to negotiate some compromise ? A nice hedge or something to screen it off?

As per PP, report it to planning as it’s probably change of use. Before you do go onto the Land Registry website and look at the ownership and classification of the land - he says he bought it but you’ve only got his word for it! Also knowing that it’s classed as agricultural land (for example) when he’s not using it for that purpose makes the conversation with planning 10x easier. You will have to make a nuisance of yourself with the council planning dept to get them to actually do anything however, so be prepared to chase/nag for an extended period of time.
As regards to the fire in this weather that’s just bloody dangerous, call the fire brigade if they do it again!

I’d call your local fire brigade and speak to a fire officer regarding your neighbour’s plans to start more fires. Given it can start a wider fire and threaten your property. It might prompt a visit.
As pp said, check planning at the council, land registry etc too.

Did you buy the property or are you renting it?

If you only bought three months ago, I’d be going back to the solicitor and asking what the status of the neighbouring land was at the time -
for them to have bought the land (and change of use, assuming planning permission…!!) that would have come up?

not sure you can do much about ugly fencing/dead trees.

re the bonfires - prob depending on your local authority , but could be environmental health, or even local fire station as particular in current weather, the risk of the fire spreading is significant.

do you have legal cover on your home insurance? Sometimes there is a free helpline you can call for advice.

If he is using HGVs as part af a business he will need an Operators Licence. This will state where the vehicles are to be kept, which must be somewhere suitable with appropriate planning permision etc. You can search for O licences on the gov.uk website. You can report him to the DVSA if he isn't operating correctly.

With current weather I’d be most concerned about fires in the short term. Have a word with your local fire safety officers, or the fire brigade themselves. They might be able to intervene to prevent more.

I think as another people have said check what the land can be used for.

A man has bought a piece of land and is using it to park his large lorry on. Burning anything at the moment is total madness but is he just clearing the site? He is fencing it and had planted trees.wrong time of year to plant trees but hopefully he will replace them then it won’t be such an eyesore.

i know you are hugely disappointed and very angry but you were making plans for a piece of land you didn’t own.

I would give everything time to settle down.
I’m not sure he has done anything heinous, he certainly won’t think he has.
I’d think long and hard before going out of my way to fall out with him,
check all of your facts, information is power and then try and have a reasonable and calm talk with him not at him.

@Redmistdecended The local authority have a lot of legal enforcement powers, including even land which is just visually an eyesore. I'd get in touch with your local councillor to ask which department or departments to contact. And yes, check with planning to find out what is allowed on this land.

I don’t understand the bit about you planning to spend hot Summer days on the land with your dd, did you think the land belonged to you ?
Other than that, yes call environmental health re the bonfires , and other advice given by pps. Very anti social and unpleasant to have a bonfire right next to a house. Also really dangerous to be having any kind of fire at the moment.

To be fair they were apologetic and agreed to put it out immediately

When I had driven past there was an old man sitting there under an umbrella with a drink, it’s public land just a big grassy verge on the corner. There is also a large paddock with horses opposite. The kind of place where you’d see the street kids playing back in the day, I wasn’t planning on anything really just thought it would be nice to sit and watch the horses.

They would have needed planning permission to change the use. Definitely contact the local authority

Thank you this is good advice.
Again wasn’t planning much just a nice place to sit and watch the horses opposite. The fire starting is my main concern that field opposite is bone bone dry.

They apologised.

Calmly go to them that you want the fence repaired by x date or you will get quotes and want the the money to pay someone to repair it.

Update:

I’ve spoken to the local council and they do not have any planning permission to build a carpark it’s supposed to be a garden extension… and it’s not even approved!! What now?

Are you taking actual monster trucks

Or hgv lorries and trailers?

Now that you've alerted the council planning department they should visit and issue an enforcement notice, or whatever the procedure is. If this doesn't happen promptly I'd get onto your local councillor and enlist his/her support. Good luck!

That’s really good news that it was sold as a garden extension.
Hopefully now the Council know they will deal with it but I would make sure you read the minutes of all the meetings and if necessary make a formal written complaint.
i do know that some Councils had started selling off wide grass verges and any odd wide junction sweeps. It brings in extra cash and they no longer have to maintain them but I’m sure there must be some tight restrictions of how they are used.
Good luck, get them to fix your fence and let the Council do its job albeit slowly.

Are there any weight limits on the approach road?

(We- local residents- managed to get a proposed Tesco planning application rejected because they wanted to use roads with a 7.5 ton weight limit for artics to make deliveries).

One lorry (as in a single owner operator vehicle) cab will require planning as it’s business bus shouldn’t be an issue, multiple vehicles is a different matter