Neighbours planning permission

[sunnyday123]

Hi

Today i have received a letter from the local council saying they plan on building 2 houses on spare land next to my house (actually the garden of the neighbouring property which joins to ours). The plans show that our entire hedge boundary will be removed and replaced - thus our garden/drive is going to be totally unusable over the summer.

I have 3 weeks to voice concerns and issues. Today i rang the planning officer to discuss details and have been told he is off for 2 weeks! I was told to submit issues in a letter to him. However as i only have the basic plans I can't really add many comments as i don't really know how it will impact on us.

I didnt seem to get anywhere with anyone else in the office but we are not just neighbours in the vicinity - this has a huge impact on us and will do for many months.

At this stage can we delay the deadline given we he is away for 2 weeks? What stage does the information become clearer? Objections may become more obvious later down the line once planning has been approved as we don't know the finer details? How can we object without exact clarification of what they will do to our garden!

Any info would be great as we have no experience of this sort of thing! I have also posted in property as no idea were to post!

Thanks

They cannot do work to your property without your permission. If work is to take place on the boundary line 2 pieces of legislation take effect the party wall act & planning permission.
Full details of the planned development should be available (usually online) from the council or available to view at council offices. You will only be able to object on planning terms (over development, overlooks habitable rooms,blocks access, not enough parking, out of character with area etc etc) rather than you just don't want the development or it blocks your view (not a protected quality)
Good clear info on party wall act can be found here www.communities.gov.uk/publications/planningandbuilding/partywall
Hope that that is of some use , with more details may be able to help more.
Is it a full planning application or a outline ap?

full planning application i think. Its not necessarily that i want to object as the adjacent garden is huge (could probably get 4-6 small houses on!) plus the house it belongs to is about 200 years old and has also had a separate application submitted to do up. So its expected and not out of the blue.

However it will a a huge impact as the current boundary is a 1.5 metre high privot hedge adjoining the two gardens and it would seem its getting replaced with a 1.8 metre wooden fence - totally out of character with our victorian property. But to do this they have to uproot the hedge and the railway sleepers that it sits on which totally destroys a large part of our garden! - 1100 in length on plan (not sure of units used on plans!?).

they mention on the plans that the lower floors don't overlook but no mention of second floor windows? Also our kitchen window currently looks out on to this garden and will not look onto a higher fence - plus brick house rather than a garden of trees and shrubs.

The work will require lots of work to 'fix' or property to the current state and it just seems mad that they can do this without our say so?!!

i have just briefly read the party wall act - The letter i have received just links to the pland online with no further details of disturbance etc therefore if planning permission is granted they still cant do anything without issuing a party wall notice? So we can consult along the way - is that right?

Check your boundaries on land registry, although they are notoriously poorly defined. But they cant rip up a hedge or sleepers that is on your land. How does taking a hedge up destroy a large part of your garden (unless it is very tiny) Sorry, just not really understanding the disruption you speak of.

wrt to ugly fence... I would aim to cover it with lots of lovely colourful climbers, much better than a cat pee smelling privat hedge (the 'flowers' and the cats!)

As an alternative route if you are in a village you parish council will be consulted on applications (it is unlikely that the time frame wil be altered due to A/L ). They may well have more details and be able to help, taking on board any concerns you have, If you are in a village contact your parish clerk or a local councillor.

How would you feel if they were to build a brick wall instead of the fence, to give you a walled garden? If you like that idea it could be a useful negotiating point.

yes our garden is tiny! There are 2 solid sleepers side by side and the hedge grows in soil in the middle. The hedge is a good 3.5 feet wide and 1.5 metres high but has been there for years and years so the roots will be massive. In order to dig them out our whole side garden and drive will become unusable as the drive only just fits a car in anyway. Plus i have 2 young children who will not be able to use the garden at all during this work. Not to mention all the grass and planting will need to be replaced to cover that whole area. We have also built their wooden play house on stilts resting on the sleepers on one side! Therefore the disruption is actually huge.

The hedge is in perfect keeping with the age of our house - i'd rather a stone wall or something but a cheap fence of 1.8 metres high running all along our house and garden would be VERY imposing (our house is very long rather than wide)

I dont mind a brick wall but at what point do we get to mention that as we seem to have noone able to clarify if thats something to negotiate on? The planning office just wants a letter outlining concerns but there may be fewer concerns if we knew the exact details! Is that a finer detail that gets sorted further down the line?

No, I'd go in now and talk to the developer. Tell them you will have strong objections to the fence (insubstantial, lower quality than the hedge etc) but you would not proceed with the objection to that aspect if they agree to build a wall in writing.

When you do write your comments to the planning proposal make sure you are clear on your reasons....not, I don't like it, but it will have x impact on us because of y reason. Read through similar proposals on your councils website and look at the grounds that others use to base objections. You can read the conclusions that the council came to as well, to see which reasons worked.

Agree with getting your parish council involved if you have one.

Do not rely on sorting finer details further down the line, this is the time to sort it out.

They cannot rip out anything on your land. If they damage your property they must re-instate it to at least the same quality.
I would approach this two fold - approach the developer & try to come to z compromise and write your objections clearly and calmly to the planning application. I would suggest that you may go down the route of - ripping out the hedge & replacing it with a fence would be out if character with the area and the historic nature if the properties.
Check out your councils planning policies (all available online but depending on your council may take a bit of searching) I would think that this would contravene their nature / tree/ biodiversity (or whatever they call it in your area) + maintaining local scale & character
If you genuinely don't feel you have enough information - state this in your complaint letter . As a minimum you should have existing and proposed plans and elevations (and possibly site sections) + a design and access statement. If the main property is listed or you are in a conservation area further information should be included assessing the heritage aspects of the scheme.
If this information is missing the planners should be asking for it but it might still be worth pointing out that not enough information is available for you to assess the impact of the application on your property.

A not z

Thanks! We have contacted the builder and he seems nice - coming tonight to discuss!

Fantastic! Well worth talking to the council as mrsm says before your chat to get some guidance on what can and can't be done with your boundary to put you in a stronger position tonight.

Good luck. They certainly cant rip out a hedge if it damages/destroys your garden and especially the driveway.