Lewegie

I live at the end of a lane and have a glorious view over the adjoining field next to my property. The owner of the field is desperate to build a house next door to us on this land which will invade our privacy, as our garden is at the front which would be overlooked by the new house and also spoil our views overlooking the landscape. Does anyone know the best way to object when they submit plans to apply for planning permission ? We are in a conservation area so I may go down that route. A development next door would reduce the value of our property but I don’t think planning officers take that into account.
Any responses appreciated.

Buzzer

Look for newts on the proposed properties site

Failing that, buy some newts to put in the proposed properties land

Seriously though, speak to the councils planning department and they will register your interest and objections. It will also be published in your local rag they have applied for planning

pbee

You have no right to a view (of nice fields or a smelter factory).

you can go on quality of life issues, light and privacy to some degree.

If you make a objection the planning office must take your views into consideration. If they are reasonable. Objecting to losing your view will get thrown in the bin. The problem you are facing is councils in some areas have quotas for new houses, if it is a reasonable area for development it will get planning in some degree what you need to do is make sure you privacy and quality of life is not affected. The council will be aware of the status of the lan (SSI conservation area, protected ect) You can highlight it, but if they have already looked at approval for the land to be used not much point really, and it depends what the land is used for at the moment, if there are any buildings ect (even a shed or farm buildings) land protection isnt much really nowdays unless it has a specific purpose for wildlife or protected plants.

Good points to fight on.

existing trees and hedgerows.
light (if anypart of natural light will be removed from your house not garden)
privacy, over looking windows ect.
Type of housing (ie building large houses in a small house street or vice versa).
parking
access.

you could be a real pain in the **** but you will probably not get the planning denied outright. but also remember most developers go to the planning meetings and are shown your objections (they are not supposed too) So the developers and planners can work with your objections to get the planning done and keep everyone happy (as possible). They are planning officials theyre job is to allow development within reasonable limits, they are not there to deny development. If the developer is determined he will get permission for something, you just have to protect yourself as much as possible.

For example. We put in planning for 4 large 4 bedrooms homes on a plot which could take 5, knowing there would be objections, but we only wanted to build 2 or 3 anyway. We also knew there would be objections about parking so each house had parking for 4 - 6 cars and a turning point for each house. What we didnt anticipate was a person in a bungalow complaining that a house would over power her bungalow, so we changed the windows to dormas and lowered the roof height.

16 objections planning for 4 houses approved, with 1 modification to one house, built 1 sold the rest as individual plots to self builders.

You need to find out what and how many houses are being built so a visit to the planning office is required, and the more people you get obstructing to the same points the better.

Lewegie

Thanks Buzzer, as we are immediate to the proposed plot we should be notified when the application is submitted. Pbee, that was a very comprehensive answer, i thank you for all those comments. I thought the spoiling our veiw wouldn't be considered. There is a shed on this plot at the moment which i beleive is in their favour. When we moved here the field next to us was one of the reasons we bought it which made this proposed site a little disappointing. I like you have been involved in many applications but have never looked at it from the other side. There is a hedge row which i think i'll take some photo's off, our house will not be affect by natural light as the house is set back from the road and the new development is close to the raod, at worst its the sun will not be on the garden in the evenings which would be a shame. There is only one house they want to build but interesting how you managed to get your permission knowing that you were going to receive objections.
The lane leading to our place is narrow and i worry at times that a fire engine couldn't get up there when cars park in the lane. Would imagine the delivery of materials for a new development would be tricky.

Leslie

Make him an offer for the plot. Otherwise I think he will win the right to build the house.

Les

Nimbus

Not sure about where you live, but here they have what's called a local plan. This identifies where the boundries are to the village and nothing is supposed to be built outside of this boundry. In our old house there were planned for a new factory in some un-used fields near our road. We and the other residents object if the emphasis on the proposed building falling outside the local plan boundry. It was rejected (but I don't know exaclty on what grounds)..

pbee

another approach is look at the size of the plot and the size of the house, you can make objections to the house being too big and make the property approved so small it isnt worth the developer building it. We knew what the objections where as we went and talked to the existing residence before we bought the land.

Hanslow

We're currently going through this with our neighbour. Out of our whole list of points, we were told the only thing that would really be taken into consideration was the overbearing aspect of it. Parking and vehicle access is not considered, light is only an issue if it impinges on a living room i.e. not a hallway or landing, nor is property value. There are rules and regs on windows, our neighbour (who is building on the driveway) is not allowed to put a window on the side that faces our property.

Look up info on the Party Wall Act from 1996. If the property is being built within 3m of the boundary between yourselves and the new plot, you can make sure the Party Wall Act is enforced. This means that you can appoint a surveyor for the build to make sure you are happy and that no rules/regs are being broken. This is at the cost of the person who will be doing the build

I can email you the document that I have written that contains our objections to our neighbours plans if you are interested (although you'd have to wait until I get home). I also have the proposed plans so you can see what they want to do. If you look on your local council website, you may find that they have a planning applications page (ours does) where you can read info on the process, and also view submitted plans.

Drop me a PM with your email address if you want me to send you those docs tonight (totals about 4MB in size as there are pics).

LG John

Loss of a view(s) and affects on land or property value(s) are not material to the determination of a planning application and no account can be taken of such grounds of objection.

You need to look at the local plan for your area and see what the land is allocated for and what any relevant housing or land policies say. Object on grounds of overlooking, overshadowing, loss of amenity, etc. Its in your best interest to remain sensible and objective with your objections as you could have 100 people raise 100 crap points that would be totally ignored or just 1 person raise one belter of a point and its looked at seriously. As a planning officer I quickly lose my respect for an objectors 'opinion' when they say they will be overlooked by the house being built 50 metres away!!! Yeah, if the occupants had a telescope

Echo

Over our wall opposite our livingroom a new outbuilding went up a few years ago. No hassles. Now there are people living in it who stare right in - it has big windows and looks in to the bedroom and living room! Thing is it's at the bottom of a garden. Can you complain to planners without having to raise it as an issue when selling?

Mike

Chrisgr31

You said its accessed by a narrow lane? How narrow? How many houses in the lane? You might be able to complain on traffic grounds. I know in my parents road its a single track lane and countless applications have been kicked out on the grounds of an unreasonable increase in the amount of traffic.

The other thing to watch is whether the application leaves room on the site for another house in due course. Its not unknown for people to apply fo one, to get the principle then apply for more.

LG John

Did they apply for planning permission for change of use from an outbuilding to a dwellinghouse? If not, phone the planning deparment and raise it with them. When you complain you are objecting to the overlooking NOT the fact that it'll be 'harder to sell'

Lewegie

Thanks for all the reponse, i will look into this carefully, especially the local plan issue, which i imagine i could view at the local planning office ?
Thanks for the e-mail Hanslow, it is obvious why you are objecting and i wish you luck, a very well put together case and will help with my objections.
The lane is quite narrow, ie just enough room for a car to pass another in places but it would only mean another couple of cars going up and down the lane excluding the building traffic. I know that a fire tender couldn't drive up to our place without cars having to be moved at night which is slightly worrying.
Thanks Saxo boy, i take it you are a planning officer and must get fed up of some objections raised which is why i plan to leave out anything that will not be considered and just use a few objections that any planning officer would treat seriously.
So far it looks like:
Local plan
Existing hedge row
Will be overlooked
Increased traffic in narrow lane

Please let me know if you feel any of the above should be excluded

LG John

It can certainly be frustraiting when people make spurious objections but it seems like you have narrowed your field to things that are of real concern to you and also material in the determination of an application. Good luck

Yes, I'm a planning officer and there isn't a day goes by that I don't regret it bitterly

Giler

Party wall act can also impinge on development within 6 meters in certain cases where foundations may be affacted.

Don't automatically assume your house value will go down, a well planned and built property may actually put the value of yours up and also allow additional development potential on your gaf.