We recently submitted a pre-application to our local planning authority on a house we are considering buying. The application is to drop the kerb to get parking at the front. There are a few complications - busy road ((though other houses on the street have front driveways), conservation area and a tree at the front that we don't believe would impact as it is not in front of the area we would want to enter the property. We put all this in the application.
The idea of the pre-app was obviously to get an idea of the likelihood we would get planning, and if there were any potential deal breakers we had missed or were not aware of.
The response we have had back tells us we are unlikely to get permission because:
- If the tree has to be impacted it will be an issue (we know that and said that in our application - we wanted to know if it IS an issue)
- It's in a conservation area so would have to be done sympathetically and the conservation people would need to be consulted (that's what I thought would happen As part of the pre-application!)
So effectively we have waited six weeks for a response that has no new information in it and is a regurgitation of our original application!
Are pre-applications completely pointless? Has anyone had an 'unlikely' in a pre-application and gone on to get planning? I feel like we haven't moved on at all and that the pre-application has added nothing!