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 highly doubt that planning would approve the use of a lorry park right next to houses

Start with the local council people, drive them to enforce the lack of planning if that doesn’t work appointment with your MP. But honestly most planning departments are pretty good but you’ll need to drive this too!

YANBU. It's good that they have at least apologised to you so you have some shred of relationship to try and maintain but don't let that stop you taking action. To resolve this you should be prepared for a fight, hard work and a lot of research.

1. The council have confirmed there is no planning permission. Have they said they are taking action? If not you may have to formally report the planning breach and if you have other neighbours affected, get them to do the same.
2. Report the damage to your property to the police. They may have a word with them about it which might prompt them into fixing it.
3. Get knowledgeable about planning regs and fight it as hard as you can. If they try to get retrospective planning permission, you will want to put your objections in. If you want expert support in this, I would highly recommend Objection Experts. The fees are worth it for a positive outcome.
4. Get advice from the fire brigade on the bonfire situation. That could get dangerously out of hand and perhaps again they will have a word with them to deter them in future.

It sucks but if you want this to be resolved, you will have to take control and not let anything slide. Good luck OP!

Edited to add: town councillors can also be very helpful. Attend the next meeting and flag what is happening with them.

Local councillors are worth lobbying, their contact details should be on the website. Not at a formal meeting though unless it is discussing a potential planning breach and you have registered an opportunity to speak in advance. Enforcement can put a stop notice on his activities if needs be.

You may have a case against your solicitor if he didn't do due diligence.

So I work in property purchasing and issues like this come up a lot

1. go on land registry and see when the land was purchased
2. see if they have permissions to change the use of the the land and if there is any restrictions of use
3. when you have these dates go back to your conveyancer and ask if there was indication this land was in the process of being purchased and ask for the search resulrs
4. your building insurance (if you’ve got a decent one) should come with free legal assistance. Once you have the information above call them and they can open an investigation, issues legal letters to the owner if they are not using the land with the legal parameters and give you the best advice

@tommyhoundmumchecks on adjoining land aren't done as a matter of course unless it's clear that the client needs rights over them. If OP didn't ask her conveyancer about the land, there is no case against them for not checking. We're not mind readers.

You've got plenty of good advice here OP. Right your local council planning department on Monday.

OP, any updates?

I work in planning and everything @BurnToShine says is excellent advice. Good luck op