Dare I object to my neighbours planning permission?

[billybunter4]

I have new neighbours but don't want to sour our relationship before it's even started by objecting to their planning application. They have a very quirky original portico on the front of their house that they want to demolish but we live in a conservation area & I'd prefer to see period details like this preserved. It's the sort of detail that many modern couples might consider an eyesore but I love it. What do I do? It would be horrible to create bad relations before we've even got to know each other.

I think, for this very reason (that people don't want to piss off the neighbours), that anonymous objections are a pretty standard thing in planning. Not sure why you're not allowed to?

I don't think it's shit. People do want to get on with their neighbours but don't necessarily want to live next to whatever it is their neighbours want to live in. I get that. It makes a lot of sense to community relations tbh!

You have to supply your name & address when you send in the objection to the planning department, but you can ask for your details to be withheld on the website.

We had people object to our planning permission. They weren't allowed to do it anonymously either.

I'd say you're welcome to object if it affects YOU. Realistically, this doesn't affect you. How many times a day do you look at their house? It's their house. This isn't a fence or an extension that will affect your view / sunlight. Or a tree with roots that are disturbing your foundations. It's a porch - their porch. You might like the period feature but if they don't, their rights trump yours because it's their house.

If I were your neighbours, I would not be impressed with you objecting over something that has nothing to do with you.

Isn't there something inherently worth keeping about attractive period features? Don't the environments in which we live affect us all? If it's a conservation area then someone obviously thinks so...

What Twinklestein said.

Look at your council website for planning policies and look at how it fits in with them. If it is an original feature in a conservation area, it is a valid point. Councils only turn down permission where it does not fit their stated policies. Whether it does or not can be a matter of opinion and usually it has to stand up to appeal, because the councils cannot afford to take too much to appeal because it is expensive for them.

If the neighbours are interested in good neighbourly relations, they would discuss it with you when they are making plans, so I would not worry about replying to the planning process - that is supposed to be what it is for.

Altering the exterior of a building affects the conservation area. Whatever one person does sets a precedent for what others are allowed. If the council allows one porch to be demolished it will lead to others following suit.

If you care about buildings and conservation status you're entitled to object whether it affects you directly or not. And if you see to every day, I'd say it does affect you directly.

If the neighbours are interested in good neighbourly relations, they would discuss it with you when they are making plans

PFFFFFT. We tried that, posted letters through people's doors, outlined our plans, said come and talk to us anytime, happy to answer any questions. Both objectors went running straight to the council like they were telling on us to mummy. Majorly lost respect in my eyes. So even if you try for "neighbourly relations", most people are too cowardly to talk to you face to face.

Council ignored them though, so win for us. We're still polite to their faces though.

Hi OP,

I live in a conservation area and when I submitted plans for a rear 1st floor extension both my neighbours objected. One side were quite vocal about it and the other side claimed that they hadn't objected but didn't realise that all objections are held on a file which I was allowed to access by visiting the local planning department. They had infact written a very lengthy objection letter. I was told that objections could not be made anonymously and that seemed fair enough to me. It's a planning process after all and we did all we could with our neighbours to engage with their concerns and make changes where possible, but it would have been impossible to engage with anonymous objections.

Ultimately our planning application was successful although we had to make some compromises.

I should also say that I don't think we would have been successful with any alteration to the front of the property as we are not allowed to so much as change a window frame without seeking permission. Our neighbour once had to ask permission to cut back a tree at the front of our properties and after much discussion was granted permission to reduce it by 20%. The work had to be supervised by the council. So it can be very strict.

If the council allows one porch to be demolished it will lead to others following suit.

Not necessarily. Unless OP lives in an area full of lemmings.

goodnightdarthvader1 You can only try

You've completely missed the point Vader, it's not a question of people copying each other, it's that once the council have made a ruling on one house, they can't object to it for others.

The correct channels for planning objections is via the council website. I don't want people turning up on my doorstep demanding to discuss their plans.

Yseulte You have also missed the point. Just because something can happen doesn't mean it will happen. No one else on OP's street may ever ask to knock their porch down. I'm not even talking about getting to the stage where someone asks the Council.

If you like it that much why didn't you buy the house when it recently came up for sale? Objecting because it affects you is reasonable. Objecting because it's to your taste and you like to walk past and look at it is a bit indulgent to say the least.
Even if it is original they may still get permission to remove it if it's leaky or damp beyond repair.
A friend's DH is a planning officer and he told me that the councils he has worked for rarely if ever pay attention to neighbour's objections.

I'm not talking about can or will vader I'm trying to explain to you basic planning law and conservation area strategy, which you don't seem to be able to grasp.

A friend's DH is a planning officer and he told me that the councils he has worked for rarely if ever pay attention to neighbour's objections

Too true. IME they only take note if it backs them on what they want to do anyway.

However, if they get enough against something, they have to take note and it goes to a committee of councillors. And then it gets ignored anyway. And so on. Up to the High Court.

It's not indulgent to want our streets to look pleasant is it?! We live in a country which has an enormous variety of architectural history. It's important to preserve that.

Planning officers will get huge numbers of objections made on the grounds of all sorts of things which aren't planning matters as a pp said. But they will have to take seriously objections about things which are planning related.

A friend's DH is a planning officer and he told me that the councils he has worked for rarely if ever pay attention to neighbour's objections.

Nonsense. I'm an interior designer and have worked on hundreds of projects with individuals, architects and property developers. And I've just won my own personal planning objection.

Planning officers are bound by law to consider neighbours' objections, and over a certain number, (it differs according to different councils) the case has to be referred to committee. There the neighbours representations are heard. These committees are open for members of the public to attend.

Yseulte, yes, that's all correct but in the end they still ignore it.

which you don't seem to be able to grasp.

You are very rude. You must work in my local planning office.

I grasp it, matey. But what I'm saying (which YOU seem to be unable to grasp), is that just because a council agrees that one porch can come down, it doesn't mean that, as you put it, "it will lead to others following suit". You getting frown lines - THAT is inevitable. Everyone on OP's street asking the council if they can tear down their porches because one house is allowed to do it - not inevitable.

You seem to be assuming that everyone hates these fug-ugly porches, RAAAAAAH, die porches, die - and is just waiting for the opportunity to tear them down.

And we built a large side and rear extension a few years ago. Both next door neighbours complained. One said it would block their afternoon sun, the other said the house had already been extended too much. Both reasonable as both true but we got permission anyway.

I imagine most people would have seen the porch as a feature and therefore wouldn't dream of seeking permission to tear it down whether a precedent had been set or not.

easy way around not getting permission though isn't there. they can strip all the protection from the portico, then it rots and needs taken down anyway - I guess they couldn't afford to replace it in those circumstances

we live in a conservation area and done everything we wanted to even with objections from neighbours - as someone else said if parts of houses are beyond economical repair there is very little the council can do.

The point was that once a council has allowed a modification for one property it's very difficult to disallow it for another, because it creates a precedent.

Each decision affects every other property in the area, and this is of particular significance in a conservation area - where the emphasis is on conservation of period buildings.

Whether people generally want to take their porches down is irrelevant.

That was to vader ^