I live in a lovely part of NW London with green spaces all around and the tube down the road. We absolutely love our neighbourhood and as we are on a cul de sac, we are a tight knit group of neighbours. Lots of houses (including ours) have been renovated in the past 5 years. We recognise it’s a hassle and everyone has tried to be respectful and minimise impact.
6 months ago one of the houses, 4 doors down, was bought by the boss of a building company who started ripping it apart, and extending. All fine. Except we clocked a basement going in with no planning. When neighbours have enquired to the builders it’s been called a cellar or just for storage. Few discussions on what’s app about it but as it doesn’t affect us, we haven’t bothered to report it. This building company has a local reputation, we don’t want to get involved in an issue with new neighbours.
We are away on holiday and got a text from a neighbour asking what is happening behind our house. Turns out the builders had started to rip out trees that are beyond our boundary wall, in the park behind us. The trees had been important for keeping the area hidden as it can be subject to anti- social behaviour. Recently a neighbour was burgled from people entering from the back. We also have lots of wildlife around (muncjack, badgers, woodpeckers, kingfishers etc). When they were confronted the builders became quite abusive. Between us and the neighbours we:
- logged a call with police
- called council planning
- called council green spaces
- applied to see if any trees are subject to a TPO
- spoke to a local councillor
i ended up on the phone to the homeowner and he was fairly nasty. We have no clue why he has done this.
Does anyone have any other ideas about what we should/can do? TIA