DH’s little project needs pp, and we don’t have it…

[anicecuppateaa]

DH loves a project. He’s currently on a mission to transform our useless slopey garden to something more child friendly.

I asked him to check about pp and he said he did (clearly misunderstood as he thinks anything less than 2.4m is fine).

He is basically extending the terrace at the back (highest point of the slope) to make a bigger flat space to play. Neighbours on one side won’t be affected as there are trees/ bushes but the other side, our new wall will be near the top of their fence. His plan is to add a fence to the new wall…..

Having read threads on here last night I realise we need pp for raising the ground level anything over 0.3m (which this is).

What is the best course of action? Apply for pp now? The new sleeper wall is halfway done and filled with mud (and currently the garden is completely unsafe for dc….).

I’m obviously fuming with him for not checking properly before he started and rushing into yet another project which will now sit half done until this is resolved.

Ok so in that case, pp required. I will take a tape measure out in the morning, but the wall is 3 sleeper widths high.

Im not sure how wide your sleepers are but a normal one is about 250mm. This would make it 750mm high ? How can that be near to the top of the fence ? Unless you only have say a 1 meter high fence ?

A photo would be great .

Ah just re read and its only half built. 👍

Will take a photo after the school run!

Even if the retaining wall is only 750mm high and the boundary fence is a standard 1800 then it would only be waist hight for people standing on it. I wouldn't want that if I were a neighbour.

Can't he section up the space as pp above said with two steps between each section (150mm x 2) to only make the 300mm height difference.

I did watch a hilarious video about 10 years ago where someone was building a huge construction at the bottom of a sloped garden and because it was under the level of the top of the garden it was technically permitted development. I wouldn't be surprised if that loophole has been filled (or the builder was misinterpreting the rules) you could make all sorts of wacky things otherwise.

@Cerialkiller that sounds as though it would be classed as an engineering operation, which doesn't come under permitted development.

Yes i was pointing out how unlikely that kind of thing is to be allowed because of how it could be taken advantage of.

OP, when we did our loft conversion we went to the council planning team in person as they run a preplanning clinic thing where you can get free advice, we only needed to take a ticket and wait for a while. Do you have something similar near you? We just wanted to check that we could do our build without planning or not and that we had understood the permitted dev rules. Obviously some drawing would help but as its not being sent in they can be quite simple to discuss your plans.

Ok here are 2 pics, one from upstairs in the house (excuse the bad pic) and the other, in the garden. The picket fence between us and next door isn’t very high (maybe my shoulder height at most, waist height in other places) and is staged because of the slopes of the gardens.

He is extending the flat section at the back (the white picket fence will come down).

I have just suggested he finds out if the planning dept have a drop in session….

Um - it's difficult to tell from those exactly what the increase in height is as you can't see what it was originally.
If the bottom sleeper in that wall of three is sitting on the original ground level at that point, then yes - PP is required.

Thanks @Seeline , yes the bottom sleeper is at original ground level.

Why not pay a landscaper for an hour visit to get some professional advice? It would be well worth the money.
It may even save your DP some backbreaking labor and avoid a pp?