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Original poster

Dare I object to my neighbours planning permission?

97 replies

billybunter4 · 08/02/2016 12:46

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.

OP posts:
mybloodykitchen · 08/02/2016 14:50

I'd be very careful with recommending that Peggy because enforcement can require people to replace like for like with (I think) no upper limit of how much it could cost.

So in this case think getting an architectural historian to liaise with an artisan joiner to recreate the original quirkiness of the thing. Which would be...er...pricey!

goodnightdarthvader1 · 08/02/2016 14:50

If it's irrelevant not sure why you maintain it will definitely happen, but ok then.

LeanneBattersby · 08/02/2016 14:55

It is absolutely not true that just because the council agrees to one porch being pulled down, they have to agree to others being pulled down. Each planning application is viewed on its own merits. The idea of 'setting a precedent' is not so simple as that.

Anyway, OP, there is no such thing as an anonymous objection. Your objection will be available for viewing at the council office, even if it is redacted on the website. If it's a change that's going to affect the character of a conservation area then the council will pay particular notice, and objections from neighbours will make a difference. In your shoes I'd object.

Our neighbour objected to our extension. He's currently on our scaffold laying our bricks for said extension! Most people are adult about these things.

peggyundercrackers · 08/02/2016 14:58

mybloodykitchen they threaten but IME they don't follow through - not in my part of the world anyway... even with listed buildings. I know of more than a few times this has happened and nothing ever comes of it.

mybloodykitchen · 08/02/2016 15:02

Yeah but the one time they did it would cost the bloody earth! Not a risk I'd like to take :)

KeepCoolCalmAndCollected · 08/02/2016 15:05

Peggyunercrackers
I know someone this happened to, and they also received quite a substantial fine as the work was not completed within the council's timeframe.

SymphonyofShadows · 08/02/2016 15:07

Slightly off topic but sometimes people object to building works that they won't be able to see, such as rear extensions, because they are actually objecting to having building work and the perceived noise/mess. I know that's not the case here but it's why you get spurious objections.

Yseulte · 08/02/2016 15:08

Each application is decided on its own merits, but with regard to how the decision will impact the conservation area as a whole.

Any applicator can search the council's previous planning decisions to find cases that support their particular application.

I have direct personal experience of conservation area councils' preoccupation with precedents and their impact on applications.

Yseulte · 08/02/2016 15:15

Well enforcement certainly follows through in London.

There's a large period house down the road from me that was demolished in the summer without consent, leaving only 3 external walls standing.

The owner has been ordered to rebuild the entire house using the original materials.

Given that it cost £3.5million to buy, the total bill for demolition plus rebuilding is mind-boggling.

MrsHathaway · 08/02/2016 15:22

Wrt anonymous objections. We were following a set of plans when we were selling our old house as it was nearby. Several objections were put on with details withheld.

But if you clicked on to them, the documents had all the original submissions including contact details, not redacted. They included email addresses (which wouldn't have been part of the published details even if they hadn't been withheld) and full names and addresses and phone numbers.

There were then a raft of objections to the publication of the withheld information. Which were also all published in full.

OP, can you submit observations as well as objections? You could lodge your appreciation for the portico in the context of the immediate area and the conservation area as a whole. If the planners were already minded to refuse the application, they could use it in support, but you'd be making only positive comments so shouldn't cause any ill will.

Backingvocals · 08/02/2016 15:40

I live in a conservation area in C London and unfortunately the council have deliberately overlooked the replacement of numerous timber windows (we live in Georgian houses) with uPVC ones. They are struggling with lack of funds to enforce and unfortunately this kind of thing has fallen by the wayside.

A number of neighbours alerted our local authority (Westminster) to this and the conservation area officer basically nodded it through due to lack of resources botheredness

Twinklestein · 08/02/2016 16:04

That's outrageous - and quite unusual in London. You should contact your local newspaper and the Evening Standard. How much council tax do you pay? Not that it's revelant but Westminister is hardly a poor council.

PippaHotamus · 08/02/2016 16:08

The upvc windows make me miserable. In a few decades people will be like 'what the fuck did we put plastic shitty windows in for? We must have been mad'.

I can see it happening all around me and sometimes it keeps me awake at night. Or maybe that's just my own, single shitty window that's the only plastic one in the house and sounds like fucking satan on a pony when the wind is blowing.

PippaHotamus · 08/02/2016 16:09

Sorry, er that ended up being a bit of a rant Blush

But honestly - EFFING upvc!

whatevva · 08/02/2016 16:31

Yep - I live in an area built with state of the art square hardwood windows. Unfortunately, they did not double glaze them. One of my neighbours replaced them with cheap white upvc which has always looked filthy. You still need to wash them. They have now been replaced with brown ones with glazing bars and little opening bits. Will probably have to be replaced as they will make the rooms too dark (and surely against building regulations for openings Hmm ) No accounting for taste.

Myredcardigan · 08/02/2016 16:33

Pippa, people opt for them because they're cheap and easy to maintain. In our last house we put in new wooden double glazed units and it cost something like 30k for the whole house. It would have cost about 12k for upvc. Plus if we'd opted for upvc, there would have been far less maintainence required.

whatevva · 08/02/2016 16:34

We were supposed to get pp for changing windows, but since the original were not dg, the council just had to ok it (and people didn't bother to get permission).

PippaHotamus · 08/02/2016 16:37

I know why they do it Sad

I just think it's a false economy and a disaster for our buildings. And I have such poor experience with UPVC windows that I wouldn't consider them easier to live with at all.

Plus on an older house they look absolutely shit.

StuffandBother · 08/02/2016 16:38

I think it's nothing to do with you and that your neighbours porch isn't there for your enjoyment!

PippaHotamus · 08/02/2016 16:39

You know that blackish staining they get, like from runnels of water and so on? Well actually, the coating wears off after a few years, usually, and then the surface of the plastic is subject to algae growth, and it's like mildew - you cannot clean it off whatever you do.

So they have a built in obsolescence, because you can't paint them either (well not reliably anyway)

Our wooden ones have lasted nearly 120 years and most of them are fine.

NewLife4Me · 08/02/2016 16:41

We are in a conservation area but you wouldn't know it.
White pvc, new driveways, conservatories and garages springing up all over the place.
Have your chimney too short though and they give you 28 days to have it built back Confused

whatevva · 08/02/2016 16:42

A few years ago, they were trying to develop upvc paint, which rather negates the whole purpose of it!

We have upvc barge boards on the sunny side of the house as we need to access it through next doors garden. This means we only need to access it every time it needs replacing, rather than restaining every other year. It is not a very special house though.

Yseulte · 08/02/2016 16:47

Upvc windows are one of the top 10 things that can devalue your property. People don't want them on period properties. However, if you live in an area of modern houses with upvc windows everywhere, it won't affect the value.

Yseulte · 08/02/2016 16:53

The major change in planning in the last few years are the permitted development rules. You can now erect extensions, garages, conservatories, without planning permission. This is a complete disaster for conservation areas.

While it was meant to relieve the pressure on housing in the UK, how much of the development is actually to home newly arrived immigrants in cheap accommodation? In the SE it's mainly property owners cashing in on high prices.

Myredcardigan · 08/02/2016 16:58

But the wooden ones are so expensive. I'm not sure I would opt to spend that much again. Then there's the oiling and the needing to paint them every 2 or 3yrs max. It was all just a massive expensive headache and I was glad when we moved.