Approval of materials by the Planners - your experiences please

[herbgarden]

We have to have our house materials approved in the usual way by the planner. I know that now in the county where my parents live they have to submit a formal application for approval of the materials being used ie bricks tiles etc. I did ask our council and they said that if we told them what we'd be using then they'd deal with approval - no formal application needed (they'd pop up and take a look) - I e-mailed our planning case officer with our type of tile we'd be using recently and have so far heard nothing.

What's your experience of this process? By the way - our roof tile looks similar to next door (all the houses down our road are different) and the house is being painted....

I used to be a planner and certainly for one-off houses and extensions just a letter giving the details would have been fine. However, i have to admit that that sort of thing usually ends u at the bottom of the pile so would advise that you politely follow up your e-mail asking for progress and if you still hear nothing, ring up to chase! You could offer to take samples in to the offices in a helpful-sort-of-way HTH

Thank you ! Probably a bit like in my job- those sort of things stay in my inbox for a few weeks !...

My sister tells me they're running slow in their county planning team as people were let go last year and not replaced, but there's been a big surge in planning applications. She tells me that chasing phone calls do have an effect!