planning - do they sit outside your house?

[CupcakesRule]

We've had a man sat outside our house in his car. We've recently put in for planning permission for an extension, do the planners sit outside the houses that have applied??

The weird thing is he was sat there for at least 2 hours. I noticed he was there at 3.30 when I got home from school run (so could of been earlier) but we're not far from the middle school so parents can park there to pick kids up so didn't think much of it but noticed he had papers and an iPad but I just Thought it was "working from home" at its best. I went straight out to get my daughter from nursery and he was there at 4.30 when we returned and still there at 5.45 when my husband got home and about 10 mins later he went.

The only logical explanation was it was something to do with planning! Or does that not happen?

Any thoughts?

We are just going through planning for an extension. Our planning officer rang first to arrange to come and view the site, she spent about ten minutes here max taking photos and looking at the potential impact on the neighbours.

Sorry I've never heard of any from planning sitting outside a house all day. Is m sure they have better things to do with their time than sit outside people's houses.

I agree a very ineffective way to spend there time!
Maybe I'll have to consider why else he may have been there.

Thanks

No. If someone is sitting outside your house I would call the police non emergency number.

Sounds seriously creepy to me. No planning officer would do that. Next time take the reg. and contact the police.

Second thought, it could be the police watching!

I'm in a conservation area, and British heritage did take photos without an appointment. Maybe they are observing traffic? Would that fit with what your plans entail?

While we were building the extension on our last house in 2012 - under permitted development - there was a strange middle-aged man in a suit definitely not my definition of burglar material lurking around outside one day. We were in a hamlet/very small village of period properties where it was very odd to see a stranger and this guy was hanging around near our drive gates where you could get a clear view of the building work. As we were on our way out I asked him him if he needed any help, directions etc - his car was parked in the layby close to our house - but he just rudely answered "no" and I didn't like to press him further. We were using an independent building inspector and I wondered if building control had sent their own bod round to check up on things or if a neighbour had made a complaint.

Never did get to the bottom of it......and I agree it seems very weird for someone from planning to be hanging around all day.

He looked harmless.
Definitely no traffic issues (it's a tiny extension and no impact on traffic).

Very odd. Hubby says he'd recognise him again so we'll keep an eye out.

Thanks

We had similar one weekend - a chap sat in his car outside our house, for hours on end. We were doing gardening out the front so kept glancing in his direction to see what he was up to. In the end he came up to us to talk to us before we blew his cover. He was plain clothes, waiting for a drugs bust that was going down at the hotel down the road!
After that, we took him cups of tea to keep him going.

Planning officers would not hang around all day. Most have 200+ cases a year to deal with so don't have the time to sit outside someone's house. Planning enforcement officers don't even have time do to that and they are suppose to be trying to catch people out! So no, it's highly unlikely it was a planning officer.

I would take down the vehicle registration number. He could be checking the neighbourhood out, to see what day and times houses are vacant.