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

Not all Councils send neighbours letters anymore. If not, a site notice should be displayed outside the property. I would check the Council website regularly just in case.

They may realise that they won't get planning and are just doing nothing TIL someone makes them

Thanks for your replies

Yes I am checking the website every day. Hopefully it will appear very soon

Thanks

Don't fret.
If they've been asked by planning officers to submit a retrospective application, ( that's one count against them), and they haven't done so within the time period( second count against them) , what they are doing is losing the sympathy and tolerance of the planning dept.
Many planning depts are quite loathe to take enforcement action ( that's making someone demolish something they don't have permission for). But if the applicant shows they don't give a monkeys about the planning dept, or the rules, enforcement action is massively more likely.

You might feel frustrated: cheering would be more to the point.

Please @ me if they do put application in; I have further advice, but depends on specific circumstances.

Ah thanks Evidence, that is encouraging. I was hoping it would reflect badly on them if they ridn’t ‘Play by the rukes’

And that is very kind of you, I will let you know if/when the application goes in
Many thanks

My neighbours did this and same thing it looked into our bedroom. I complained to him he council and within a week it had been taken down

Thanks oct18. That is encouraging. Hope I get some speed with my situation.

The position of neighbours being friends with councillors is yet another reason why you want this delegated to a planning officer. I agree that councils don’t do neighbours letters any more. One of my local ones doesn’t even seem to do public notices any more either! How anyone is supposed to know what’s been applied for if the applicant isn’t known to you is a mystery where I live.

Also, they can take forever to determine applications. Total disregard of the time limits around here too. However one of my local authority planning departments is a known disgrace!

Thank Bubbles

I have learnt so much about teh planning process on here!

My councils seem to be one of the last ones that still do neighbour letters and public notices. They did so on my own application a few months ago and the enforcement officer on this case said I will get a letter. I do check the council website every day though too and have asked the eonforcement officer to let me know when the application goes in

Thanks

Quick update

Council have told me that they have got their application in now, it is just going through the validation process. So I should hopefully see it soon.

Have also been in contact the ward councillor. He told me that calling something into committee has to be done within a week of the application being validated (seems a very tight timescale).

I have told him that I wanted an idea of where the planning officer is going before we called into committee.

When allocated to an officer he is going to try and find out whether is isn't a flat no so I can them make my mind up what to do (obviously he can't tell me what the decision is in advance of it being made)

I am just glad that something is eventually moving on it. I guess nothing much else will happen until after Xmas now but at least it has started

I don’t think your councillor is telling you what is the normal position about calling in a planning application. Neither he/she or you decide. There will be a policy on what can be delegated. Often the Planning Officers will know immediately if it’s going to committee. This will be larger schemes, contentious schemes that affect a lot of people and schemes that fall outside the powers delegated to planning officers. Therefore many of these are decided immediately regarding going to committee. Another reason why a scheme might be refused delegation is the number of objectors. Individual councillors can get involved and call them in but it’s poor practice if a scheme would normally be approved and it meets all criteria for approval. Members cannot be vindictive. They cannot refuse a scheme without good reason and applicants can, and do, gonto appeal and win. This may result in costs being borne by the council if they have acted unfairly and against their own policies

Therefore familiarise yourself with the relevant policies. Ask about the delegation policy. Is it on line? If the planning policy is clear that this roof terrace should be refused, the Planning Officer will not approve it. They are professional and they can explain to the councillor why a scheme will be refused or agreed. Going to committee is not going to change the policy - even if you speak for 30 minutes! So be more relaxed about the role of the planning officer and familiarise yourself with the relevant policies.

Thanks Bubbles.

Really appreciate your time and advice.

I have spent a lot of time familiarising myself with all the policies. I have already drafted my objection letter (that someone I know in planning has reviewed for me).

I understand what you are saying. As soon as I know what officer it has been delegated to I will make contact with them and I will, of course, be getting my objection in asap.

All advice I have had (including from a few people that work in planning albeit not at this council) is that this should be flatly refused. Am probably just overworrying slightly.

thanks again, I will keep you updated

Hi I haven't had time to read through the whole thread but wanted to offer you the following thoughts

I use a planning advisor , he's 100% on top of any new rules and regs , I find his knowledge mind blowing and love listening to him as property is foremost in my life , having both developed and been involved in planning from the council side

Planning advisors can work both sides, for people / developers gaining permission and on behalf of local residents opposing on a development / planning

Might be worth your while finding yourself such representation

Mine is around £80 - £100 per hour ( an awful lot can be done in an hour ) but worth his weight in gold for knowledge , tips and ideas and saves me more money back in the long run

Thanks speakingtruthfully

that is good advice, I have thought about this.

I think it could well be worth just an hour of someone's time, given the seriousness of it

thanks

You need to ask the council what their policy is on reporting items to committee. Your councillors advice seems strange.

I am a planning officer and we report to committee if just one objection is received. So your objection could mean it is reported.

In my experience council members despise retrospective applications though so this may work against them.

Thanks Sherry

That is very interesting.

I am going to get my objection in asap (and I don't think I will be the only objection).

So from what you are saying, the objections alone might mean it is reported to committee?

Out of interest, do you think this wold get approved at your council?

Thanks

You need to look at your Council's Scheme of Delegation, no one here can tell you what triggers are.

For example, ours only go to committee if a Ward Cllr requests it, or if the Parish/Town Councils recommendation is the opposite of the Officers, with planning reasons. Other Council's are triggered by a certain number of objections.

It should be somewhere on the Council's website.

@Morley19
How are things going?

Hi Sheep

Thanks for asking.

It is very timely that you ask actually as I was going to update the thread next week when I am hopeful we will be at the next stage.

We haven't even got the live planning application yet! (after 4 1/2 months). The neighbours, as expected, aren't playing ball and just delaying, delaying, delaying.

They did submit an application in December but with no plans or anything. The enforcement officer has been on at them ever since to get proper plans in. He kept giving them 28 days, then 14 days etc. It was very frustrating but, as he said, if he were to end up in court with this he would have to be able to show that he bent over backwards to assist the applicants in getting the application in.

Why the process is like that god knows. In my mind people should be given 28 days and if you haven't got it in by then then take it down! But the process doesn't work like that, it is very long winded.

Anyway he sent them an email just over a week ago saying that, if he didn't have the info in within 2 weeks, he was passing their file to the legal department for them to consider the next stage ie enforcement notice to take it down.

He has now received a plan (it looks like a child has drawn it) and he hoped that it would be enough, together with the photos he has taken, for the planning officer that it was being delegated to. However, the planning officer wants one further bit of info. As I managed to get sight of the plan I expect it is details on what their proposed privacy screen is made of (on the plan they had just done a scribble, like a child would do, and put 'proposed privacy screen' - not details of it at all, what it is made of, size etc ).

So they have been told to get that in by this Wednesday and hopefully the damn thing should get validated and go live next Monday when the planning officer it has been delegated to is back from a week's leave.

And then the objection period can actually start!!

I am so worried that they may get it approved. I know logic says it should be laughed out of the planning department but it doesn't always work like that. I tried to push the enforcement officer on his view, even though I knew he wouldn't say. He did say though that it was difficult and he had seen things approved by various councils that he has been shocked by. Great! He also said that he had been reading some articles about councils ability to stop people using their flat roofs!

So I am very nervous

Thanks again for asking.

I will definitely update this thread throughout the process to help any other poor sod that gets put in this position.

And if my neighbours happen to be reading this - the gloves are coming off! Get the thing down you selfish pigs!

xx

We recently submitted a planning application with a small part of the flat roof shown as a terrace. This did not allow looking straight into a neighbours window and the neighbour didn't object. The planners advised that they couldn't accept the application with the terrace but if we resubmitted removing it straight away they would pass the application. This was Birmingham and was a very unobtrusive small terrace so I think the planners should be on your side. P.S we wouldn't have dreamed of proposing anything like your neighbour has built.

Thanks Babyboy - sorry you didn't get the result you want as it sounds like yours was a very small unobtrusive one.

And yes, anyone with any decency wouldn't have dreamed of submitting what my neighbours have! but if you knew them, you would understand why they did

It would have been a nice to have rather than essential, I'm just happy the planning permission has been granted so we can start planning our extension.

Fingers crossed for you.

Thanks

I will definitely update this thread - whatever the outcome!

Eventually we have the planning application in! I think someone has told them they woudn’t stand a chance without some sort of glass divide. So on the dividing line they have now proposed a 1.8m by 2.5m glass screen that also comes 1 metre round the front but tapering down on an angle.

Doesn’t make any difference to my very strong objections. My whole garden is still completely overlooked by the 5.7m width of this terrace (yes you read that right! The whole thing is 14.25m2!).

Also I will now have a very intrusive 4.5m2 glass screen within touching distance of my bedroom window. Will block light (too close, despite being glass).

Also they can’t escape the problem of noise disturbance. Glass screen make no difference. The huge terrace is right on the boundary line and just 1 metre from Bedroom.

I know a few other very close neighbours are also objecting as they are now completely overlooked too.

I am going to arrange for the delegated officer to visit my home ASAP

If there are any planning people on here can I ask a question?

In my council’s guidance book about extending your home it has a section on ‘first floor rear extensions (including conservatories)’

It says that if they are on the boundary line they are not allowed to project more than 1.5m from the back wall.

If they are away from the boundary line they are not allowed to project more than 1.5m plus half the distance from the boundary line.

Do you think this guidance for ‘first floor rear extensions, including cobservatories’ would apply in this instance of this balcony including glass screen ie is the first floor balcony an extension? I want to know whether to reference it in my objection letter. The balcony is right on the boundary and projects 2.5m

Thanks