Quick query please as I'm not getting very far with google.
In England. Semi-detached house. Not a conservation area, but a semi-rural setting. Next door has about 0.75 acre of land, most of which is an old chalk pit, disused for about 80-90 years. Was covered in mature trees and used recreationally by old neighbours until they sold.
New owner chopped down 95% of the trees over a weekend - skipping to the end of a long story, we understand the Forestry Commission is taking action on this and will be requiring some form of re-instatement.
Turns out the new neighbour did a deal with a property developer. Nothing happened for 6-7 months as the Forestry Commission investigation stopped all work. Currently he is doing some tidying up work to remove the roots of the trees already chopped down, which he told us about, with permission from FC.
As of today, the "tidying up" seems to include several truck loads of loads of hard core being delivered. The developer told us his long-term plans were to fill in the chalk pit and to build houses. No plans have yet been submitted to the local authority.
My question to the collective wisdom here is - would he need planning permission to fill in the pit? Or is he perfectly at liberty to do this on his own land? It seems problematic to me because i) potential change of use of land, ii) environmental impact and iii) several large lorries already this afternoon, holding up the traffic for several minutes each delivery on a busy road, plus he's chopped down his fence at the front to create a larger gap for the lorry to back up - over pavement, not the dropped kerb to his drive.
Is this grounds for yet another call to the local council?