anyone know anything about planning/highways?

[teabagtea]

My friends have a neighbour who is a farmer who has a lot of converted buildings ( without planning consent). The planning people know about this but he says they don't mind (??) Now he has diggers in digging up the verges alongside the single track lane along which we live. He is apparently putting in passing bays. I rang Highways to see what was going on and they knew nothing about it (despite his assurances that they do)but still it seems to be continuing. The big issue is that our phone lines run under there and are really shallow(they seem to have dug them up - although they are still working at present). I don't know where to turn next as noone seems to have done anything about it. Can anyone help?

Put it in writing - they will have to respond then

Thing is by the time they respond the concrete will be poured in the holes and chances are they will be there for ever...

Phone your Planning Department (Highways are not the people responsible for granting permission) and follow it up in writing, and then get in touch with your local Councillor and MP to find out if they know about it and what they are doing to stop it.

Hi You don't always need planning permission to do works within the road but normally exceptions only apply to utility companies etc or the highway dept themselves. The only other time I can think of (off the top of my head) where planning permission wouldn't be required for the passing bays would be if they were required under a condition imposed on a planning permission.

However regardless of whether planning permission is required or not for the passing bays, separate consent would still be required from the highways department (which is usually the county council unless you live in a unitary authority area where everything is done by one council) if the verges are within the public highway. The Highways dept will be able to work out if the verges are within the public highway or not - quite often they are. The Highway Authority's consent is pretty much always needed to do works within the public highway, especially if the works are being done by a private individual. If he has done it without their consent then they maybe able to get him to stop and/or put it back as it was.

He would also need separate consent from any other statutory undertakers (e.g. gas or electricity suppliers), as well as phone companies whose cables, pipes etc would be affeted by the works.

Therefore I would write/email the Highways department and the phone company asap.

If he is not one of the exemptions from planning permission that I put in the first paragraph then I'm pretty confident he'll need planning permission. I would also write to the planning dept (usually they have an enforcement team) about the passing bays and in the same letter mention the converted buildings. It seems abit odd that the planning dept is happy with the buildings but they may be reasons as to why they are. If you put your concerns in writing then they should investigate the bays and buildings further or at the very least explain to you why he doesn't need planning permission for the passing bays/why they aren't investigating them further and also explain why they are 'happy' with the converted buildings. It might take them a while to investigate but ultimately planning authorities can make people put things back as they were (although this is usually the most extreme action taken). I would definitely write as our planning enforcement team only investigate written complaints.

Hope this helps in some way - sorry it's a bit long but planning can get a bit complicated!