The trials and tribulations of getting planning permission

Planning permission takes ‘up to’ 8 weeks right? That meant we should have got a decision by 19th July right?

Well, what happens is you submit your plans and this gets sent off to the various departments. Some come back with no objections, some make objections, giving reasons. The objections are usually sensible, and just things we hadn’t included in our application, or require more detail.

Within the 8 weeks, there is normally time for us to amend our plans and submit them ready for the decision within 8 weeks. We did this, and got Conservation Area Consent Granted, but on the last working day before the decision, we got feedback from Highways, who objected to a number of things, and we had no time to submit amends.

Garry from planning was great, and told us that rather than refusing permission, that he would extend the time to get us a positive outcome.

Highways didn’t want vehicular access to the front of the building, and we didn’t want to park 30 metres away from our new house. We put our case forward and won. There is a dropped curb there already, and every day there are at least 4 cars parked there, reversing off etc. Our scheme would reduce this risk as you can turn around and always come out the right way etc.

Then there was, let’s say ‘confusion’, about our diagram showing that you can turn a car around in the front yard. Highways produced their own diagram that they were happy with, and we were granted permission soon after.

Trouble was, after the initial 8 weeks, there wasn’t any urgency to make our decision, and given the load on the Highways dept, each feedback took around 2 weeks.

This was very, very, very frustrating. Despairingly so at times. Summer came and went. We didn’t take a family holiday because we thought we’d be working on the house. Now, we’re deep into autumn with winter approaching, coming just as we’d want to lay down the slab…

So, it took over 20 weeks, 5 months instead of 2, but we’ve got permission now, so we can now move on, with progress pretty much in our hands now.

I’d personally like to thank Peter Lamb and Garry Hildersley from the planning department who have always been extremely positive and helpful in getting our scheme granted. Thanks guys!