Responding to parish council objection on planning?

[PointyMcguire]

Help! We’re currently in the process of seeking planning permission, highways agency have confirmed they have no objections, environmental agency have no objections as long as we abide by certain stipulations (none of which are an issue) and immediate neighbours have all said they have no concerns with our proposal.

However we’ve now received an objection from the parish council which includes several inaccuracies; there’s a covenant on the property/land that strictly prohibits the running of a commercial enterprise yet they’re stating this is the reason for the proposed changes to the property and are objecting on those grounds and they’ve also outrightly lied about current usage of the land. Annoyingly we hadn’t realised the parish council meeting was taking place when it did, else we’d have attended and tried to quell any concerns directly.

We’ll be speaking to our architect on Monday but in the meantime can any advise what the best approach is for responding to their concerns? Is this something we need to worry about? Is it likely to impact on the approval of our planning? The last time we applied for planning (previous house) it was super straightforward so we’ve not encountered this before, and if I’m honest the outright lying in their objection feels strangely personally.

Parish councils don't usually hold any power with pp. They can object much like anyone else can , I probably don't live anywhere near you but I also can object. The upper tier council will just ignore it if it's nonsense.

How do you know it is 'outright lying' rather than an error on their part or a legitimate different view? Be cautious of being overly aggressive if not necessary.

It might help if you explain what the changes are and what they are actually saying that you believe to be incorrect.

The parish council are usually a statutory consultee so have every right to respond. They have very limited time to respond so have to get on with it. Yoir architect or you should have proactively investigated when any meeting would be, it is not their job to contact you.

Is their intervention going to mean your proposal now goes to committee rather than being determined by an officer? Their intervention means this aspect will have to be a tovrly considered but if what they say is factually incorrect it can be shown to be so presumably.

Have you considered discussing with them if they have made an error? It would help if you calmed down perhaps. You won't make any friends calling people liars unless you have evidence of malign intent in their comments.

You can submit a response to their consultation setting out where you feel there are inaccuracies and adding further information if this is necessary. I'd be wary of accusing people of lying of lying though. You want to resolve this issue to avoid going to committee.

Planners generally don't get involved in easements or covenants and it doesn't tend to influence their decision - having planning permission just means your proposal is agreed by the planning department of your LA and doesn't mean that the construction is legal in all respects (in terms of the above, and also HSE / CDM requirements for example). It is up to the developer (in this case, you!) to deal with these additional aspects and ensure compliance with the law. I doubt they will be interested.

It wouldn't harm to ask your architect to submit a letter on your behalf outlining why the objection is factually incorrect. However, I bet if you look at the comments section on your application it says somewhere that they don't consider easements or covenants in the small print.

I work for a Parish Council, they can say whatever they like really but it doesn’t hold a huge amount of weight. You can submit a statement clarifying your application if you like. At the end of the day, the planner makes the decision based on planning law and not what the parish Council say.

As PP said Parish Councils SHOULD stick to objections allowed under planning law but some don't (that's a whole different issue about training at that level).

Respond and correct any inaccuracies if you wish but the decision is that of the local authority ultimately.

It's quite easy for people to get the wrong end of the stick, so you'll be much better off correcting the incorrect statements rather than telling them they are liars. Don't take it personally anyway, people are allowed to dislike your development plans, even if you do get planning permission. You can't necessarily expect to make changes and for everyone to be happy about that, some people don't like change and doing a building project is notorious for bringing that out. Just part of the process really.

It is most definitely an outright lie as they’ve claimed we don’t keep our horses on the land, the same horses which I can see from our kitchen window right now and are very much visible from the public byway as they like to say hi to passing walkers etc.

I’m not saying they have no right to respond and we’re absolutely open to any concerns anyone might have, it just feels unjust to state something that’s completely untrue to drive their narrative. I’d have been fine had they just said they were concerned the intended changes might be with a view to creating a commercial enterprise (it's not, but I could understand their concerns and would happily reassure them of all the reasons that would never happen, including the covenants that would forbid it in the first place).

Obviously we have no intention of directly calling anyone a liar, it just seemed like a strange point to make as it’s so easily proven as untrue and rightly or wrongly felt quite personal.

Ah ok, that makes a bit more sense. So it’s likely even if the Parish council were aware of the covenants they wouldn’t necessarily consider them when objecting/feel it’s enough to mitigate their concerns?

We’re going to speak to architect in the morning and see what he suggests. I suspect he won’t see a need to correct the point regarding the horses being on-site as it’s a moot point in terms of the planning, but it doesn’t stop me wanting to all the same.

Thanks everyone for your advice. Sorry if I came across a bit hot-headed last night, in RL I couldn’t be further from that but I think pregnancy hormones got the better of me and I was just feeling really sad and upset at the way the Parish council had gone about their objection - I definitely need a thicker skin!

These parish council types can be very small minded, and I speak from experience here. But as others have said in the end they hold no power as such. We got a planning consultant on board with ours, and it then went through - that was for housing on some land adjoining a family home.

From experience, parish councils can be full of their own self importance but actually carry little to no weight at all. Even less so if they have wilfully lied in their objection. I don't think you have anything to worry about OP but I would certainly make a point of correcting them, it will not reflect well on them which is sort of what you want!

Write /email to Clerk of Parish Council.
Calmy correct their factual errors and ask that those corrections are included and minuted in their next Planning Committee meeting.
Copy this to Head of Planning at "big" Council

You need your architect to respond as you are taking it all too personally.

You are calling people liars when they may simply be incorrect. The Chair of the PC may have been goven incorrect information. You do not know if they are lying and you are accusing them of having 'a narrative'.

If they do have a narrative, what is the point of inflaming tensions? If they don't have a narrative, what is the point of starting an unnecessary argument? You have to live in the community after you have got your PP - be careful not to shit on your own doorstep.

We honestly have no wish to inflame tensions, in fact until yesterday we were unaware there were any tensions with regard to our planning proposal as we went out of our way to discuss our plans ahead of time with anyone who might be even vaguely impacted, and no one raised any concerns or issues with our plans.

We really have tried to do everything by the book and obviously don’t want to cause any upset or ill-feeling as we see this as our forever home, and the one we’ll raise our family in.

I agree the chair of the PC may have been misinformed when drafting the objection, however someone somewhere will have lied as like I said upthread this isn’t a simple case of misunderstanding, anyone passing our property can easily see our horses are in fact present in our fields and they can be seen there 24/7.

someone somewhere will have lied

Definitely let your architect do the talking. I know you said you are hormonal but you sound a bit Midsummer Murders!

’Someone somewhere will have lied’ or it could be as simple as the Parish Council thinking your application refers to Field A (currently empty) when in fact the application refers to Field B where your horses are. Never assume malice to something that could be due to stupidity, as the saying goes!

Have the pc perhaps had residents raise concerns which they are reflecting? The minutes may give more information on the discussion. You do not need to respond directly. You could request to speak at their next meeting though. Speak to your planning officer as to what you need to prepare in case it is referred to committee.

Maybe, although the planning doesn’t relate to the fields at all so it wouldn’t matter where they are. The objection states our horses aren’t kept on the premises which is untrue.

In my experience the best way is to ignore comments from the parish council and locals. The planning department will make a decision based on planning rules and the law, locals and the parish council more often than not make comments/complaints based on feelings, nimbyism, irrelevance and sometimes just to be awkward.

It's a shame because when they do have genuine point it is often lost in the stupid comments. But then often the sort of people who are on parish councils are really the people you don't want.

Thanks @Noisyprat I’ve just been having a read of some of the other objections they’ve put in over the last few years and it appears we got off lightly in comparison.

As others have suggested we’ll leave this firmly with our architect to handle as he’ll know best.

What grounds is the objection? Dismiss the irrelevant and address the salient point.

I would get your architect to write a letter saying you note the concerns of the PC, however....

Then address each point in turn, correcting any misinformation as he goes along.

The issue is that the planners are legally bound to consider the PCs objection. Also i

Whoops..

Also it is a public document which wi

Ah phones!!

which will be available on the council website for members of the public to see. They can then get the wrong end of the stick and start their own objections based on misinformation.