Nutty Neighbour Advice Needed Please

[insan1tyscartching]

We live in a cul de sac, we are the first house when you leave the main road (although it's not a main road more a road with streets leading off it onto two different estates IYSWIM)
On the main road nearest to our house is a group of four flats, the upstairs flat's garden borders our garden but ends at the end of our house and then there is a patch of common land that is maintained by the Parish Council.
The upstairs flat's tenant is a middle aged man who has been there for years and years (more than twenty and although he causes no bother for us he has a reputation for being loud and aggressive)
In recent days I have become aware that he has decided to extend his garden onto the common land by erecting a fence that buts up to our external wall. Now he seems to be preparing foundations for laying paving slabs judging by the delivery of vast quantities of sand, cement and slabs.
My concern is that firstly the fence adjoining our house will be noisy if there is any wind, where he is digging to lay paving is where the local council are supposed to be putting in some sort of drainage facility because of the lay of the land water gathers there and I'm concerned that with no drainage and paving the water is going to run up against our external wall.
I contacted the council (his landlord) when he put in fence posts but I'm assuming there has been no contact as work is progressing quickly because I can't imagine he has permission for what he's doing. I don't want to confront him myself as he's not somebody you want to make an enemy of so what else can I do and what's likely to happen if the council ever do bother to come and see what he's doing?

Try the planning side of the Council and ask if permission has been given to enclose common land, and if the necessary flood/drainage assessments have been made. You might ask who to contact (Environment Agency?) about drainage implications for your property.

Normally planning controls on common land are quite strict.

Take photos and contact the parish council. The clerk to the parish council would be a good person to contact as they will be able to contact the councillors to flag this up.

The neighbour's landlord and the parish council are not necessarily one and the same. It sounds as the parish council is the landowner therefore they are the correct contact.

Thank you I will try and get photos without being seen, it's difficult as he's out there all day from 8am until 7pm and his flat overlooks the spot where he's working so will need to watch his windows as well.
He's recently retired and think he's taken leave of his senses if he thinks what he is doing is acceptable or even legal. I expected the Council to act quickly but seemingly not as it's all stations go. I've had an email acknowledging my concerns and I've been given the name of the estate manager so I'll try and contact him directly by phone today.

Try contacting your actual councillor about it, rather than housing or planning. Thr councillor may well get something done and probably won't be impressed if he's making a grab for common land.

Parish councils are not huge organisations. Contacting the clerk to the council with your concerns will get them relayed to the councillors.

Well I've emailed clerk to parish council as I can't find a phone contact number and estate manager (who had out of office on) and attached photos.Pretty sure nobody turned up on Friday (I would have heard him) but he hasn't done anything at the side of the house today so maybe they've written or maybe he's just had a day off. I suppose time will tell, but if work continues tomorrow I'm going to contact them all again on Monday morning.

Thought I'd update this situation, Had estate manager and parish council clerk contact me. Parish council clerk confirmed that responsibility lay with the council. Estate manager contacted me to confirm that he would be checking regarding permission etc and then contacting neighbour. Work continued apace and neighbour laid paving and completed fencing and installed bins, a wood pile and a water butt and compost bin (I think).
Last week on holiday I got an email to let me know neighbour has been told to remove everything and restore to original state by beginning of September. I got home yesterday and neighbour has made a start at least and turf has been delivered so he is obviously going to comply.
Ds and dd said neighbour hadn't mentioned what he was doing or questioned whether we had complained but had been banging at the side of the house from 6am most days and was out there when dd came home one night after clubbing
No idea whether he will confront me or whether he is knocking about hoping it will annoy me but I will turn a blind eye to the noise seeing as it will only be for a fortnight or so anyway.
Don't know whether the lack of impetus from the council was deliberate or not but it ensured that work was fully complete before neighbour was told to remove it all which made me smile anyway.

Ask council of they can ensure your complaint remains anonymous.

If he approaches you, act disappointed for him and surprised about whole chain of events. Don't anger it.

Knowing how volatile he is I'm pretty sure he would have been ranting when he saw us come back yesterday as he was out when we unloaded the car. Estate manager assured me that he wouldn't know I had complained and I think with our being away he probably believes the council acts quickly and had done as a result of a routine "walkabout". I will sympathise when or if he speaks to me but generally don't say much more than "Hello" every few months so it might never even happen anyway.

Result then OP. Parish councils take a very dim view of anyone trying to appropriate land in this way. Green spaces are for benefit of the whole community. They'll have seen and heard it all over the years and be used to dealing with problem neighbours.