Seeing Architect & Planning Department today - feeling a bit daunted

[Katymac]

The architect said - don't woory I always have good relationhip with Planners

Then phoned me yesterday & said why didn't you tell me they were like that - it's like dealing with planners from 20 yrs ago

It's going to be sucha crap day

Let us know how it goes

Hmm it was a bit of a let down really

Nothing was decided and another 2 meetings have been planned

Katymac, doesn't sound like your architect has much experience with planners. I worked in london for 5 years as an architect and had lots of experience with planners and never me one who wasn't mired in the 80's. And there is a major amount of turnover (we would often have 2 or 3 over the life of a project), so any architect who says he/she has a good relationship with the planners is probably not telling the truth.
Having said that, the secret is to write their report for them. The people who review the projects are fairly junior and have to write up an assesment of the project to present to their seniors (to cover everyone's a**). So if you (or your architect) write up an organized and articulate assesment of your project and why it "fits in" with the character of the neighborhood, it will help a lot. We had a lot of success doing this with ultramodern projects in completely historic neighborhoods....it's just how you word it. Refer frequently to the planning statement for the area and how your project fits in with it.

Only just spotted this Sofia

My Planning man has been in his job for about 30 yrs

My architect says he has a system for dealing with them - starting with the preapplication meeting

My council doesn't support preapplication meetings

Mt architect asked for the rules about whether a project is referred to committee or decided by "something" powers (would that be delegated??)

My council said well it depends if I like the look of a project or if the councillor is concerned

My architect fell over at this point but we managed to get copies of the bits of planning statement he will be using along with a statement that the loss of the hedgerow affecting the asthetic of the countryside (without any quantifiable explaination of asthetic)

Architect has already started the report thingie and has added loads of stuff I hadn't even thought of

Does this make more sense?

Also important that if it looks like things are not going your way, make sure that it's made clear to planner that you will be appealing decision if project is turned down. Council gets "fined" if projects are allowed on appeal and our firm in London got almost all our council rejected projects allowed on appeal (national board that doesn't have local political influences). It can add to the cost of everything to appeal, but well worth it if you feel that decision is being made irrationally or purely on aesthetic basis. Appeal board is big on loss of quality of living issues.