Balcony and planning permission *images removed by MNHQ at OP's request*

[Morley19]

Does anyone have any experience of balconies and planning permission? Epxperience of a situation similar to mine?

My neighbours have put this up without planning permission. I have reported it and they have to put a retrospective planning application in.

The photo looking outside is the view from my bedroom window. gives them a direct view into my bedroom and even onto my landing. The external photo shows the vastness of it and the ridiculous amount of overlooking.

To me, there is no way they should get planning permission for this. but I hear of such weird decisions by councils. I have already drafted my objection (the planning application is meant to be in by end of this week) but I am very worried that they may get approval.

Thanks

Exactly madmum.

All the advice I have been given (much on here) is that there is no way this should be allowed but it still worries me.

I keep telling myself that councils have to publish their reasons for approval publicly and I just think it would be really difficult to publicly approve this

Make sure you attend the planning committee meeting the application is discussed at - assuming they make one. You get something like 3 minutes to speak if you are objecting. Take copies of your photos. Also take photos with your velux windows open showing just how much the roof terrace impinges on your lawful extension.

Thanks Wowfudge, that's good advice

I have indeed put in my objection letter (that I have already written, just waiting for their application to go in) that I would like to attend the committee meeting and I have had sound advice on how to make sure the application goes to committee

Thanks

It's not necessarily a good thing for it to go to committee - that suggests they will at least give it some consideration. It's much more likely to end up delegated to a case officer who could reject it without needing a committee.

Thanks Winey

I understand what you are saying.

I have been told that the best bet is to request that the ward councillor calls it into committee but only if it looks like the case officer is going to approve it.

I haven't read all the comments but in the first picture, if I am seeing it correctly, it looks like the next neighbour along has a balcony type thing too. Is that right? I wonder if they thought they would get away with it because the other neighbour already had one too.

Not sure if that would make any difference to your case, it's still an invasion of your privacy what they have done.

Even if they didn't think they needed planning permission, it's so odd to me that someone would build something like that without talking to the neighbour first. We asked our neighbours if they minded us having our kerb dropped so we could park on our driveway like they do. We didn't need to ask but it's just polite and the right thing to do!

Hope you get it sorted and I hope it doesn't cause a problem with your neighbourly relationship.

Thanks Chiki

Unfortunately there aren't really any relations left between us.

I have put a previous post (I think it is on the first page) explaining about the other property.

Thanks

You have not really been given the best advice regarding the committee. You might like the idea of 3 minutes of fame but in reality, planning committees are notoriously off message. Loose cannons! Planning Officers are experts on planning policy. If it’s delegated to a planning Officer you would be far better off.

Don’t forget councillors are not experts. If your council’s planning policies strongly suggest this is not permitted, The Planning Officer will reject it. Untrained councillors have whims. You don’t want that!

If it does go to the planning committee she should attend - nothing to do with three minutes of fame. What a flippant answer.

Bubbles

Thanks for your reply.

I can 100% assure you it is nothing to do with liking the idea of '3 minutes of fame.' The last position I want to be in is this with my selfish neighbours and, to be frank, the thought of having to go and speak at a committee meeting fills me with dread but I have no choice, I have to defend my corner on this, the potential consequences to me of this development are huge.

I appreciate what you are saying about committee members but I think that is why the advice I have had is to only ask for it to go to committee IF the delegated officer is going to approve it. Like you say, best case scenario is that the delegated officer just refuses it.

Thanks Fudge - yes I have no desire for '3 minutes of fame!'

Beware!
A ward councillor 'calling in' an objected to planning app to planning committee - is this a good thing?
If the ward councillor is on the majority party, yes.
If w.c. is on minority party, not necessarily.
If we.c. is minority party, and also hated/ disliked by a majority of councillors, them speaking your side, will, unfortunately, prejudice the majority party against what s/he says.

Shouldn't be like this, in theory councillors should cast their votes having listened dispassionately to the arguments. But in reality, this can seriously affect how a planning committee view what is said: not the merit of the points made,but who was making them.

You need a councillor from the party with the majority on the planning committee on your side.

How would you know if the delegated officer is going to approve it?
Cause once the delegated officer approves, that's the decision done- too late then to try to get it to planning committee. This seems like a high risk strategy to me.

Thanks Evidence

I am getting more and more confused on this.

I assumed the Ward Councillor would be able to track the application (or even speak to the officer that it has been allocated to) to determine whether it is going to be approved or not?

How do I find the councillor with the majority on the planning committee?

Any Councillor should be able to speak to the case officer about the likely outcome of an application.
To be honest, if you ring to speak to the Case Officer after the consultation period has expired, they should be able to give you an informal view on the likely outcome.
I agree, the best scenario would the application being refused under delegated powers by the Officers.
I think the politics of decision making at committee on such a small application (I appreciate it has a big impact on you, but it's not a development of hundreds of houses or a new shopping centre) is extremely unlikely to come into force.

If you want to do some research, the Council web site should tell you which Councillors sit on the Planning Committee and which party they represent.

Thanks Seeline

I was wondering how much contact I would have with the Case Officer. I think that might be my best bet? To have as much contact as I am able to with him, discuss the case on the phone (if they are willing)

Hi Morley19,

If the planning application has been put in by your neighbours, feel free to phone the planning officer 21 days after the start date of the app.
These details should be on the council's website.
Phoning is better, not emailing.
Again I would like to stress, and agree with Magda's opinion as a planning officer, highly, highly unlikely to get planning permission.
And on that basis, no need to get any councillors involved yet.

Thanks Thewixxx

I am so grateful for all the advice on here.

I will make sure I telephone the case officer once the planning application is in.

What is frustrating me at the moment is them not getting the application in. The enforcement officer wrote to them about 40 days ago now requesting that they get the application in within 28 days.

They emailed him about 2 weeks after receiving the letter saying that they would be submitting an application but still haven't yet and I am struggling to get the council to follow up/push them. I just want them to get the application in so I can start the objection process.

I really did not imply you shouldn’t attend if it went to committee. What I was trying to say was that this should be your least favoured outcome. Others who thought committee was best are wrong. Saying your bit doesn’t change policy but councillors don’t always follow the advice of officers, and they have far more clout than you do.

So it’s best for it to go to an officer who knows the policy and many small and relatively uncontentious (in terms of objectors) decisions are delegated to officers. The advantage of this is that they know the planning policies inside out. You can look at the policies too. You could even ask a planning consultant to look at them for you and give you a view on whether this will be approved or not. I would think it won’t be.

Once the planning application goes in, the planning Officer will be named on the planning web site. They will read your objection but the decision will be based on planning policy so familiarise yourself with the relevant policies and base your objection on this.

if you are going to do argument against I suggest you do bullet points on paper writing down exactly what you want to say (do it in large print!) ie point by point & than rehearse timing your self. (how I use to do presentations!) think logically step by step you can gather/connect ideas together this way :)

Thanks Bubbles, apprciate what you are saying. Hopefully they will get the flippin application insoon then I can make contact with the officer and take it from there. Like you say, hopefully it will stay at that level and they will refise it

Thanks mumsastudent - great practical advice!

Good luck with this, OP. Hope the fact that they are friends with councillors will not affect the decision - although I'm sure this happened with a neighbour of mine who according to all the council's regulations, and objections from the two neighbouring householders should definitely NOT have been granted permission to build another house in his garden - but mysteriously he did. I'm sure the 'brown envelope' was handed over at some point.

Thanks gingham, that is exactly what I am nervous about.

Just hope it doesn't happen. I think this case is so blatant that it would be very difficuly for the council to publicly approve but who knows!

It's possible they may have submitted an application which is being processed still - our architect submitted a planning application nearly four weeks ago and it's still not showing online. Your council may have a similar backlog. Hopefully it'll pop up before Christmas :)

Ah that's interesting, thanks for that Kevin, could well be the case

Definitely check that no application has been received.
When it is received, you should get a neighbour notification letter