planning permission for play equipment

[IsMyNeighbourAKnob]

I've name changed as this will immediately 'out' me but I need some of your brilliant advice please!

We have recently erected a Jungle Gym Chalet in our back garden. It is below 4m high, it is more than 2m from the neighbour's boundary and he is absolutely furious with us and threatening to take legal action, charging us for it.

We've contacted our local planning folks and they think we should pay them £35 for a permitted development enquiry to see whether or not they think, informally, we need planning permission. This is because it might constitute a raised platform and the eaves are more than 2.5m high.

It is, admittedly, bloody huge! However, most of the sites we can find say that play equipment doesn't need planning permission and that neighbours are not entitled to privacy. At this point, if you are still following my extremely dull post, I need to also tell you that our 2 storey house directly overlooks his bungalow. Therefore, the view from the play equipment is virtually the same and it is dark, so his privacy is not actually any different. (I've suggested to DH that we invite the bloke over to see for himself, but DH is not keen on this idea).

Our neighbour is unusual and picky. It is closer to his fence than the middle of the garden and we have explained that it is so we can monitor the DC's behaviour once they are old enough to play out there unsupervised. I know that we were perhaps naive to just build it without checking stuff out first, but the websites suggest that we are unlucky to have a neighbour who is so incensed by it, and we were just excited about providing a cool climbing frame for our DCs!

Do any of you have any experience or advice about this? Do we pay the £35 or just proceed to a full on planning application (maybe about £150!!)? I suspect that he will move us forward to planning anyway, saying that the informal enquiry is not a legally binding thing.

Thanks for getting to the end!

If you feel confident that it is within permitted development i'd be inclined to leave it & let him take legal advice if he feels strongly enough.
Even if he is taking/paying for advice he should get the same answer as you so why not let him pay for it, you can then act on his results.

I'm not sure what it looks like. Is it like a massive shed / Summer house ?
It sounds like you've put a building in the garden, but I might have not got the right picture in my mind - would it help if you link to a picture of it ?

I wouldn't bother with a £35 permission enquiry - this has no basis in law and is a discretionary charge. I would ask the planning office if they would do you a Certificate of Lawfulness (£75), converting it to a planning application on payment of the extra fee (another £75, to make it up to £150) if it does need permission. That way you have legal proof it doesn't need permission if it doesn't (which you can wave in front of your neighbour), and can go straight to an application if it does. This is how we do it at my Council.

Play equipment can need planning permission, depending on its size. Never trust a seller, they just want a sale and for you to deal with the fallout if it does need permission (which is, after all your responsibility).

Your neighbour is entitled to privacy, and amenity (i.e. freedom from excessive noise and disturbance), and that will be taken into account if it does need permission. It will not be a determining factor in whether it needs permission or not, that will simply be a determination based on its size and whether it is deemed a raised platform, a means of enclosure or a building.

Hope this helps.

Okay! I've never done a link before so let's give it a go!!

www.climbingframe-hypermarket.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=68_74&products_id=236

It's brill! It's more than 5m from our house too, and his, as it needs to be. I don't want to take it down!!

And thank you very much for your thoughts so far.

MissMarjoribanks Could I just run another option past you? We have an elderly neighbour on our other boundary who we don't think would complain if we moved it nearer to him (although we wouldn't be able to see the children from the house when they are older, so not ideal from our point of view). Would we be better just to talk to him, get his thoughts on it, move it closer to his boundary if he says it's okay, and avoid the possibility of the planning permission being turned down to have it in the garden at all?

The 5m rule went out in 2008 when the permitted development rights were changed. This might help:

www.planningportal.gov.uk/uploads/100806_PDforhouseholders_TechnicalGuidance.pdf

You need to look at Class E.

In principle, that would work, but it would be at your own risk. Objecting neighbour may still have an issue with it and the Council would be obliged to investigate and take enforcement action as they saw fit - ranging from none if it didn't need permission up to a prosecution and works in default if they served an Enforcement Notice on you and you refused to comply with it. So this course of action wouldn't necessarily avoid the need to apply for permission.

Thanks. We'd always do what we were told. He first suggested that we move it further away so there is a possibility that he might be satisfied by that option. I think we'll have to get a tape measure and a ladder out and see what difference it would make etc.. and then porbably apply for permission anyway. We're very sad that this has all turned into a bit of a nightmare. Let's hope putting it on here acts as a warning to others at some point!!