Out-of-character next to the house - will our rear extension application help?

[WarmDuck]

Dear experts,
We really need some advice here and would appreciate your inputs if you have gone through a similar situation.

There is a very narrow strip of land (roughly 4 m wide) between our detached property and the adjacent semi-detached house. This narrow strip of land is basically at the rear side of a property which fronts the road paralle to our road. A planning application to build a detached house (2 storey + loft) in this narrow strip is submitted. There have been some objections raised by the neighbours as this will be totally uncohesive and out of the character for the neighbourhood. Hopefully the council will reject the planning application based on the objections, but we are afraid an amended application may be submitted.

To make our grounds of objections stronger, we are thinking of applying for a 3m single storey rear extension of our property. Assuming it gets approved, then we are thinking we would have stronger ground to object if a re-application is done by the neighbours to construct multi-storey building in this narrow gap because our light of right would then play even more important role. We are thinking that if our application gets approved then we will have 3 years to start the developement. In this 3 year period, if neighbours apply for multi-story building just next to ours (they want to not leave even an inch from our property fence), then we could write to council saying, you have approved our rear extension but that would suffer from loss of light if this application goes ahead. Not sure, if I am able to explain properly.

Basically, can we object to neighbour's planning application based on loss of light for our approved extension? I know, we can object if our dwelling is getting affected but in this case, it is not the actual dwelling but the approved plan for the proposed dwelling that would be getting affected.

The hassle of paying for the architect and getting planning application approved for rear extension will only be worth for us, if that will help us in objecting to the neighbour's furture planning application.

Note: We are new to the area and have no enmity with the neighbour but their proposed plan to build a 3 storey detached building sharing our fence wall and leaving 25 cm distance from the other semi-detached property will really spoil the neighbourhood and is out of the place hence we want to take this approach, if it may help. We are not sadist people that enjoy neighbour's planning applications getting rejected for no reason.

If you have an expertise in this area or have faced such a situation in the past, then your insight would be really appreciated. Thanks.

Regards,
X

Speak to a local Planning Consultant (preferably one that used to work at the council) to write your objection statement. They will know exactly what policies you can object to the proposal on, not just the nimby objections the council usually receive.

A lot depends on local development boundaries and if the council can show their 5 year land supply is current etc.

This infill smacks of poor design and will be viewed as such by the council. You will benefit from some rights to argue loss of light if it impinges on the 45 degree rule from any habitable window you have in your property.

HTH in the short term

Thank you very much for your response. The 45 degree rule has been mentioned in the applicatio by the neighbour. But if we have planning application approved for our 3m rear extension then will the 45 degree rule be considering the existing habitable window of our property OR the proposed habitable window as per our planning application? Any idea?

Thanks and regards,
X

The 45 degree will be taken on existing neighbouring properties current build line/habitable window positions.

What is the application for the new house next door?
Full or Outline with reserved matters regarding size and scale?