Any solicitors specialising in land/covenants able to offer me some advice please?

[smartiecake]

I live in a large town in the West Midlands in a built up residential area, however we are in a lovely spot with a big garden lots of wildlife etc. Our immediate next door neighbour has the same but also owns an area of land at the end of the gardens which runs behind the end of our garden fence and also approx 3 other houses and gardens. This has/had a restrictive covenant on it according to HM land registry that this land is to be kept for the purposes of garden land only or some similar wording. I have a copy on email from land registry.
The local authority own land next to this was garages on. The LA have purchased or are purchasing the piece of land with the covenant on and we have had notification that they wish to develop both of these areas and build 8 council houses.
Obviously us and our neighbours are concerned about the building work, disruption and especially loss of privacy we have now and impact on the environment. We have hundreds of birds, bats, foxes and badgers to name a few.
Regarding the covenant is there anything we can do? It looks like the covenant was imposed by the LA many years ago for the land to be used as garden land only. I assume this is easily overturned by the same LA. But as a group of residents is there anything we can do to try and keep the covenant in place even though we don't own the land ourselves? Sadly I can't afford a costly court battle but was wondering if there is any hope of this avenue being challenged by us residents?
Any advice or knowledge would be so helpful. I have been googling but not sure where to start.
Thank you for reading.

So they're buying it off your neighbour?

Yes sorry. They are buying off the neighbour so they can develop the whole area. I don't know if the money has changed hands.

The covenant binds one parcel of land and benefits another, or more likely in this situation the LA. Unless your property is clearly one of the properties intended, in the deed, to benefit from this covenant (it will say so either in your deeds or theirs) the covenant won’t help you.

thrings.com/blog/removing-restrictive-covenants-to-free-your-land/

I think that it depends who set up the covenant? From experience (planning) they don’t seem much of a hindrance to development (i.e. I understand that there are means of lifting them and from reading this it depends who is the beneficiary and what the terms of the covenant are).

You’re right, the covenant won’t help you here. If the LA imposed it then it will become meaningless once they are the owner. And even if they didn’t they have the power, for a compensation payment, to override covenants on their land.

You could certainly make representations to the planners about the wildlife and bats etc. But normally mitigation measures are put in place (eg relocation of animals etc). It’s quite rare for this to actually stop a development.

You could certainly ask the planners to ensure that conditions are in place to control the times building work can be undertaken etc.

A scheme to create more council houses is going to get a lot of support though, they are desperately needed in a lot of places.

I feel for you op. This pretty much happened to us except there was no covenant and it was developers building for profit. We objected on every basis we could as it clearly went against the LA's local plan eg wildlife, tree cover. They are so desperate to build housing though it didn't matter. They just plant trees elsewhere to make up for it!

Had the back of our house become a building site for ages and now we're overlooked.

Thanks all yes that's what I thought but I thought it was worth exploring every avenue. Yes i know there is a need for housing and I have become a nimby. But it's so lovely this patch of garden and the wildlife we have is wonderful. After living next to 2 sets of noisy neighbours we finally move into a detached house and it's quiet. I can't bear the thought of living next to a building site for 12 months or more. Our youngest has autism and he runs round the garden every day. He loves it out there and the peace and quiet. He needs that quiet space.
We do have a disagreement over boundaries though now I have the title deeds to our property so will pursue this with the LA.

@smartiecake I was advising a planning committee where there was going to be building work next to a house where a child had autism. They worked really closely with the homeowners to minimise the impact on the child. It is definitely worth making representations about this but in the sense of coming up with practical
Solutions (eg fences to shield you from the building work, hours of working etc).

I’m sorry you are going through this; I completely sympathise! But no point me beating around the bush about what is likely to happen.

Your best bet is definitely to work with the planners to mitigate the impact as much as possible

It would also be worth getting in touch with one of your local councillors. If they can understand your specific needs they can help advocate for those protections to be built into the plans

Thank you NeverTwerkNaked - great name btw!
Yes i have looked up our local councillor but not made contact yet. Planning permission has not been submitted as yet although it should be by October.
Thanks I will definately inform them about my son in my appeal and dealing with planning dept and I hope they can make adjustments for him. He was so upset a few weeks ago as a neighbour was erecting a shed and there was some banging. I dread to think what he will be like when there is a building site behind our fence.

Good luck with it; there’s no harm getting in touch with your councillor in advance of pp application being made, they can make representations to the people drawing up the plans then.

Thank you I will. Plans have been drawn up but not been submitted as yet. Definately worth a try.

Ensure that there is a full bat survey.

But, as others have said, not a lot you can do, unless you can find a bunch of Great Crested Newts. (Not sure of the collective noun for newts).

Can you and the neighbours buy the land instead, if the sale hasn't gone through? I had a relative (and their neighbours) that did this, they ended up with a very long garden and it pushed the development a bit further away from them!