Council building a 4 storey tower block in a small space 10 feet away from my mid terraced property

[UnshakenNeedsStirring]

Hi All, I need some advice please. I received a letter from our council in a leafy green part of SE London. They are building a 4 storey tower block right in the middle of our cul-de-sac where about 45 families live in mid terrace properties. The land is just 10 feet outside my bedroom window and currently has a community centre. It will need demolishing and following that years of pain and misery to have a tower block blocking our light and no space for kids to paly or kick a ball. The area is heavily built up anyway. There has been no regards to our lives and our health in this matter and the council seem to be bent on carrying this out. How do I stop it? Please help as I haven't slept in days and its affecting my mental health. Any advice will be appreciated.

Thats why you are gunning for them. You can surely see if why I am opposing this plan

I wish my neighbours had been as proactive as you when the flats were built behind us. I have no issue with them as such but one flat was meant to have a Juliette balcony with frosted glass and instead was built a full walk out onto and look into all the bedrooms of the houses behind with clear glass French doors and glass balustrade. It was built before we moved in and because no one said anything for 4 years after completion there is nothing we can do.
The flats are also only 2 storey, but they are raised above us so feel more like 4 storey.
I would get together with your neighbours and all put in complaints on the planning portal. Is the community centre no longer get in use? Is there anywhere else nearby that would be suitable for the flats to be built?

@longtompot I will do my very best to try to stop the little green space we have left from being taken away. Happy for a small dwelling put into place for social housing, same level as our houses. But a 5 storey tower is silly and will block all our light. As it is there is no parking available here and the local NHS surgery isnt taking any new patients. Where on earth are these people gong to use the services from?

So what building work is he supporting outside his own home?

How many of the flats are actually social housing and how many for private sale? (It should say somewhere in the application, you can assume the number for social will end up reducing).

Access, traffic, services and loss of amenities would all be a factor in considering what might sensibly be built in that spot - presumably a small number of units in a two storey building would be less of an issue?

As for nimbyism - anyone in a built up area should be challenging their representatives on actions being taken on empty properties. London has tens of thousands of empty properties (kept empty, not even talking about second homes here) and developers land banking sites which would be more suitable for development.

I agree, s smaller dwelling or row of bungalows, or a row of terraced houses same height as ours, wouldnt be an issue at all. I do have an issue with a 5 storey building 10 feet away from my window.

@UnshakenNeedsStirring yeah that's an awful place to build. I don't blame you at all for being upset. Best of luck with your objection to the planning proposal, I really hope you can make them see reason.

It's fine to say that there are lots of empty homes and something should be done, but it is a logistical nightmare to find the owner and then persuade them to do something with that home. I used to work in local government , we had a colleague who did just that, there was even a pot of money to use to lease the property and carry out repairs so that it was available for rent and wasn't an eyesore. The amount of work to do just that was phenomenal, some owners just didn't want to co-operate, despite some houses being in a shocking state. If you want local authorities to be able to compulsorily purchase properties on that basis, then it's fine, but you will get a whole bunch of people screaming that it is against their rights.
Most people would prefer houses to be built, but ,
a) there might be a need for 1-bed flats
and ,
b) we are in a crisis in respect of social housing . Some areas just don't have enough , huge waiting lists and people living in very poor circumstances. If any social housing provider can pack more units in, then they are going to do just that. The footprint for bungalows is just not going to make economic sense and won't go far enough to dent the housing register.
If you multiply your situation over the whole of the L/A then nothing is likely to be built , there just won't be enough brown field sites to make a difference.
I understand you are upset, there will be lots of others upset because they are homeless or in unsuitable accommodation and would love a new build flat.

@SilverGlassHare I am devastated. Its a beautiful nice quiet place to live. All my friends say how peaceful it is. Now it will all be destroyed for a huge building in the wrong place. Wish I could sell up and move.

A 5 storey block of flats squeezed 10 feet away from my bedroom window and I should be grateful?

It’s your life, your mental health, you deal with it how you like. However, my point was that you can choose how you emotionally process it.

I have seen lots of people get very obsessed and rigid in their thinking about planning permission being granted near to them. You can decide that this is terrible or that you are going to be emotionally ok with the outcome either way (that’s where the gratitude but comes in - grateful for other things not to do with the planning).

Surely it will only block light on 1 side though?

Could you post the link to the planning portal so we could see and maybe give you more advice? From your diagram, I cant see how its only 10 feet from your house.

Get your MP involved re loss of a community facility and children’s play space, and development inconsistent with the town’s local plan (become familiar with the plan).

If planning hasn’t been granted, object to the planning application on lots of grounds. Maybe ask a lawyer to help with this. Speak to local council lots and get neighbours to do same. See if you can find a clever neighbour who’s good at paperwork.

Try to get local paper to do a story on evil developers destroying community centre for profit, to put pressure on MP. (Sure they say its social housing, said that for our local development too. Then somehow it became like 30% social housing and the rest is selling for £800k per property 😐)

If planning permission is granted, APPEAL that.

FYI the only person who can appeal planning decisions is the applicant.

Sounds like my borough where the council are using up every tiny bit of land. If you're in Lewisham borough don't expect to get anywhere with them they are useless!

You should also check the Council's Local Development Framework to ascertain the status of the site and policies with regard to social housing and redevelopment of brownfield land. It may have already been identified for housing. Also important is the status of the LDF ie have he it's component documents been through the adoption process. Also have the local authority adopted design guides for the area? The LDF is the prime consideration to be taken I to account when planning applications are determined. So although consideration would be given to objections, policies in an adopted plan are given more weight..

Greenwich Borough :(

@JuliaDomna thank you. This is news to me, I wasn't aware. I will google to see what I can find out. Appreciate the help

@Firty I will certainly do all the stuff you mentioned in the post. Going to give it my all!

I'm also in Greenwich.

Pocket Living are trying to build 5 story flats at the back of our local co op in their car park alongside the railway line.

They are tiny and will be very expensive. I can't imagine anyone would enjoy living there especially with the mainline 30 foot away.

I would be happier if they were social housing, but these I think are going to £300,000 - £400,000. I cannot see anyone paying that for a rabbit hutch. There is also no provision for parking, only a bike store.

Lots of councils will not allow parking spaces! Their green agendas allow for bikes and public transport only. Loads of flats in London are next to railway lines. It’s a city. Also many councils won’t give parking permits for new flats.

There are rules about overlooking habitable rooms. A bedroom is a habitable room. The best bet is to accept it will be developed but argue that it’s too big for the site and too close to existing dwellings. You won’t stop this development as the site has existing use as a building. If you didn’t know it was in the development plan, I’m wondering what your searches said when your solicitor did them? You normally have a lot of info about development plans locally.

Don’t argue about development noise and nuisance. Argue about size, lack of landscaping (if true), proximity of building to other older dwellings, lack of light, lack of privacy and 3m away will require a PWA. I doubt if it is 10ft.

@TizerorFizz thanks, I will take on board your suggestions when drafting the letter

Re councils allowing, or not allowing parking spaces. We've had a new development built on the other side of town on the site of an old petrol station. Part of the planning was there were only two parking spaces and the rest of the residents had to walk or cycle. They have now allowed them to apply for parking permits in an area with completely packed on street permit parking, and as you can imagine local residents aren't happy about this.
I hope the rules are much tighter now with regards to windows and overlooking bedrooms, but our experience is this isn't always adhered to. If planning is granted keep a very close eye on what is included and what is actually built.

Where we are in London they are tight. No residents parking permits. They stick to
it. There are clear rules about directly overlooking habitable rooms @longtompot I obviously haven’t seen the plans but 10ft away is too close.