Its a mad, mad, mad planners world

Welcome to the maze that is the world of local council planning.

Following the refusal of our application I decided that I would try for a change of the approved house position to something that suits our needs better, and gives more useable garden. All I've done is to turn the house through 90 degrees and move it nearer the garage. It is still the same basic shape and style of that which was approved in 2006. If anything, its an improvement as it has a smaller footprint and is less obvious from the nearest road. So an appointment with the planning officer this afternoon was eagerly awaited. The first problem was a call this morning to say that the planning officer had called in sick. However, another officer agreed to meet me so off I went.

"Hmmm, hmmmmm, ho hum, hmmm" - said the planning officer, "need to see my boss". 2 minutes later and a shake of the head. No can do - it needs another full planning application with the attendant delay and cost. The only good news was the comment that it would probably get approval! Note the use of the word "probably". There are no certainties in planning it seems.

And so we have a dilemma. The existing planning permission expires in April next year. Once upon a time a renewal was just a simple process, but not any more. A renewal now has to be a full re-application and subject to all the vagaries that any plan is subject to. With a timescale of at least 10 weeks from commissioning a drawing to getting planning permission (or more likely, refusal), we're running dangerously close to that deadline. So, I have devised a cunning plan Baldrick. Apparently, I will get an amendment if I move the existing property along the plot a little (what's "a little?), so I intend to present my revised floor layout in the same line on the plot and seek approval so that in the event of a further refusal we have at least got an alternative. Mind you , we'll have to have the full engineering drawings produced and then get started before April, but that can be done.

In the meantime I will get the revised application under way for where we really want the house and present this for approval. If it fails then we do still have something.

Its like walking in treacle!

Exhausted of Clifton

The Wee House is dead! Long live Wee House II

Yes - I'm sorry to say that the design of Wee House just will not stand the modifications that have been suggested for the roof. It results in an ugly looking house with insufficient room on the upper floor. So, after considering the negative comments from the parish council, and thinking about timescales, we've decided to go for a slight modification of the plan already approved by Mid Beds Council.

The approved design was for a single storey house which occupied a central position on the plot. The layout was not at all to out liking, but at this stage, its the basic outline and elevations that the council are interested in. So, we've shrunk the size to about 75% of the original, and turned it through 90 degrees on the plot so its parallel to, and about 4 metres from, the garage. We've also radically altered the layout to create what we think is a much more useable arrangement. As so was born Wee House II!

As this looks exactly like the approved plan we're hoping that we can get this through as a simple amendment to the original. The other advantage is that if we can get it through, we may not have to pay the dreaded 106 section charge as the approval was given before the 106 was implemented. We'll see what is said by the planning officer on Monday. Fingers crossed.

Trainee architect of Clifton

Mid Beds Council 1 Wee House 0

I discovered earlier in the week that the Parish Council had decided that they objected to our plans because "it will have a detrimental impact on the visual aspect when entering the village". This seems quite perverse as they had already approved the 3 previous plans submitted for our plot, the first two of which were for much larger four bedroomed houses. Enter the world of planning applications, where there's no such thing as consistency. Whilst the Parish Council's opinion is often ignored by the district council, I did feel that things were stacking up against us.

Sadly, and not entirely unexpectedly, worse was to come in the form of a 'phone call today from the Mid Beds planning officer. She explained that she would be recommending rejection of our plans on the basis that there was too much bulk in the house - primarily the roof. Had we submitted plans with hip ends for the roof rather that gable ends, she would have recommended approval. I can't criticise the planning officer at all - she is doing her job to the guidlines she has. I blame our architect who should have discussed this with the planners before submission of the plans as this would have saved us time and money.

I have requested that our plans be withdrawn in favour of a redesign which at last saves us another planning application fee.

We now have a couple of options - modify the existing plan to include hips rather than gable ends, or come up with a new design. I really don't think the existing plan will work with hips so its back to the drawing board it seems.

I have arranged to meet the planning officer on Monday and will have to come up with some outline plans to discuss with her. Trouble is the impending Christmas / New Year holiday is going to delay everything by a several weeks (again!)

Disprited of Clifton

What are the odds of approval?

I arranged to meet the lady responsible for our planning application at Mid Beds Council. She is a little sweetie, but I suspect we may not get our plans approved without some changes. It looks as though there may be a perceived problem with the bulk of the roof in relation to the style of the property for which approal has been granted. This had hips at each end of the house, and at each of the front and rear extended bits, whereas our design has two gable ends. The net result is that our design presents a larger area of roof that might have to be changed, Trouble is, I'm not sure how we could add hips to the roof without ruining the space and features inside the house.

So, the application goes forward to the planning committee comprising senior planners, who are able to approve it, or they may pass it on to the full planning meeting in January, at which all the councillors will be in attendance, and I can plead our case. Fingers very much crossed. If I were a betting man I would say there is a 40-50% chance.

A couple of legal bits

First bit of good news is that I have discovered what's known as "inherited access rights". In essence, the right of access over the driveway was given to the new owners of 5 Brookvale when they bought their house in 1992. That right of access was granted to the whole property and a plan of the plot accompanied the deed. This clearly shows the section of garden we have bought as belonging to number 5. Apparently, any sub-set of that original plot is automatically granted "inherited rights" of access. In other words, we have legitimate right of access over the drive leading to all the cottages at Brookvale and our very nasty near-neighbour who has been making noises about our lack of access can go fish (or something)!

Second development today was the receipt from our solicitor of the Deed for the infamous 106 Agreement. Its only taken 5 weeks for the combined skill of our solicitor and Mid Beds legal team to produce an exact replica of the form that I downloaded 6 weeks ago! Now this document commits us to pay our local council the sum of £3505 for the privilege of building our house. Not only that, but I have to pay the council £310 for submitting this document, and a further £175 to allow them to "monitor" its execution. That means collecting the cheque from me. I really wish I could try this at work - I'd make a fortune. Oh, and of course, there's my solicitor's costs as well.

Abba come to mind - Money, money, money........

Penniless of Clifton

Its curtains for Jim - he appears to have lost his ruler!

An envelope arrived in the post yesterday. Who could this be from? Ah, the revised plan for the house no less. I looked at the changes and words almost failed me. I wasn't quite speechless you understand, but VERY unprintable words were uttered. Our architect had scaled the house more or less correctly but had positioned it in the the wrong place on the plot! Given that the council approve the exact position of the house and any change requires a request for an amendment, this was a serious professional error. Not only had he moved the house nearer the driveway, but also moved it much closer to the garage to create two potential problems. Firstly, there was insufficient room to turn a car round without reversing onto the driveway (yes I know, its not Regent Street exactly, but you have to play the game), and secondly, the house was now nearer the existing cottages and there is some regulation or other about being no closer than 25 metres. So Jim had done it again.

A rather curt email this morning, and yet another revision is being done, but will be copied to me before going to the council. What is particularly galling is the fact that within the "design and access statement" we've had to submit with the plans, the distance between the house and the garage is clearly show and Jim had written (corrected by me as you might now imagine). I had also given him a drawing showing the measurements of the house on the plot, so no reason at all for this mistake apart from carelessness. Jim is soon to be our ex-architect.

But...with every cloud, comes another one. Well, not really. After nearly 4 weeks of pestering by my solicitor, the council have finally responded to his request for an answer to a question about the dreaded 106 agreement. So, now we'll have to wait and see just what the council make of our one-bedroomed house and whether they try to suggest its too big for just one bedroom! I feel another battle coming on.

Another odd call today with a local firm specialising in building project management. They were replying to an email I sent at the weekend. Right from the start the man seemed quite aggressive as I explained that I was looking for someone to manage the project but that I had various trades lined up so really needed the project management skill only. He rather pompously told me that they wouldn't entertain such an idea, but wanted the whole project - tenders to local builders, choice of sub contractors, total management of the build, etc. "OK" I said, "if I were to take that approach what would be the cost". "6% of the build cost" he said. "Right" says I "if I send you the plans, can you estimate the build cost". "Only if you pay us" was the somewhat suprising reply. "Sorry" says I, "I think I've got confused here. I want you to tell me how much your charges will be based on the estimated build cost which you can surely calculate very quickly based on the size of the house." "Thats right, but you'll have to pay us for that information". To summarise then, this man wanted me to pay him to work out how much he should charge me. Having suggested that for those of us living in the real world, his attitude was rather hard to understand, I told him that the only real value in the call was that it had made me schedule another customer service course for my staff, and bade him goodbye. Amazing.

However...there was a silver lining late this afternoon when I took a call from a local firm of building surveyors who had been recommended to me. Not only can they produce the detailed building control drawings we need with all the engineering aspects, (Jim would have done this but as he's soon to be an ex...) but also have good contacts in the form of a recently retired house builder who would be pleased to take on the project management and help me set up accounts with local builders merchants using his many years of knowledge. He's happy for me to employ my own sub contractors and pay them directly, so the day ended on slightly higher note than it started. His name is Roy. I hope his surname isn't Rogers!!!

Bemused of Clifton

Its all a question of scale......

Having been pleased that at long last the planning application had been submitted for approval, I happened to be scanning the plans submitted to the council (posted by the council on a web site for all to see - but we'd not been sent the very latest version by our architect). All looked good until I noticed that the plan of our house that had been superimposed on the plot outline was to the wrong scale. The house had been made to appear nearly twice the size it actually is! Now given that we had been playing up the fact that it was smaller than the previously approved design, I was very concerned that lay people, such as the parish council, who would review the plans would perhaps think it too large for the plot without checking the detailed drawings that accompany the submission.

A call to our architect produced - "I'll look at at" he said. A while later he called back - "As far as I can see its correct" he said. When I pressed him he said that if it was wrong then the copy of the site plan he had used "must have been scaled up incorrectly". He therefore agreed to redo the plot layout with the correctly sized house and resubmit to the council. However, I knew that the Parish Council meeting was taking place early next week and that the Council were unlikely to get the revised site plan out to them in time.

So, a hunt on the internet (what did we do before this was available?) and the address of the clerk to the Parish Council was found. A quick, apologetic letter and a correctly scaled plan (produced by me) was hand delivered this morning to home of the clerk to the parish council. Hopefully, they will give us the nod at their meeting.

It does beg a question though - Why should I be checking up on something as basic as the scale of a drawing from a professional architect? It really isn't good enough and I suspect we will be looking for some fresh input from another source in the very near future.

Do It Yourself man - Clifton

A bit of Brookvale genealogy - farming, farming and more farming.

I've been doing a bit of research on the cottages at Brookvale, and although a little superficial, it does give a glimpse of what life was about in the latter part of the 19th century.

The cottages were built from 1872 and the first record of their occupants is the 1881 census. This shows that Henry and Elizabeth Payne Lived at Number 1, with their three daughters. Henry, unsurprisingly was an agricultural labourer, whilst his wife and two of the daughters (the youngest being 12) were straw plaiters - probably making hats for the local hat industry. The youngest daughter Zilpath was eight and a "scholar".

Next door at number 2, things were altogether a tad more crowded as Isaac and Sophia Jenkins lived there with their 6 children. Isaac follwed the obvious trade of agricultural labourer, with Sophia and their eldest daughter Anne being straw plaiters - as next door. Three of the five sons were agricultural labourers too, the youngest, William being only 14.

What a change in 1891 - Henry and Elizabeth Payne now lived alone, and Isaac and Sophy (not Sophia) Jenkins had only a granddaughter for company. One hopes that her name - Beatrice Rainbow brought a little colour into her life - but what of her parents? And how far away did the children go? More research may show us.

Two more of the cottages were shown as occupied in 1891, but not which numbers. The census shows George Nottingham (widower) 58, agricultural labourer a solitary occupant in one house, and John Millard 76, late coachman gardner in another. I've managed to track the Millard family back to 1871, before Brookvale Cottages were built, at which time the family lived in the "Village" Upper Stondon. I assume this to be the area around the church. John and his wife Sarah are shown as having three children at home, whilst another Millard, Lucy, is shown as living at The Rectory - I assume in service to the local vicar.

As its a very small community I would like to try and build up a picture of the village and track its families. Something for the winter perhaps?

"Who do you think you are" of Clifton

One step forward, one step back....

Rights of way are rather complex things as we are finding out. The driveway to Brookvale had access rights granted to the owners of the existing 5 cottages when they were sold off in 1992. Trouble is that the person that granted those rights didn't actually own the land over which the driveway runs. Instead it is claimed that the land belongs to a farmer at a nearby farm. So, in theory, the owners of the 5 cottages have no legal access rights anyway!

However, the driveway land isn't registered so its impossible to find out for sure if he does own. Another fact compounding matters is that someone else is trying to get access rights to the field beyond our plot, with the hope that they might develop that area for housing. That person seems to have some influence over the farmer who reputedly owns the land, so we have a conflict of interests - we want declared access rights, but the developer-to-be wants some of our land to enable an 8 metre wide road to be created (minimum size that the council will allow for a development). Obviously, we don't want any houses built in the field, although the local development plan stipulates that nothing will be developed there until at least 2060, so there's not much chance anyway. However, at present the developer-to-be is suggesting that he will stop us using the drive, even though he is not the owner of the land. Nice man!

After much research we believe that the driveway land and the field beyond may have been sold to the farmer without much in the way of legal involvement, and even if there are title deeds it is unlikely that they would be very specific about access to the general area of Brookvale, so giving us the ability to access our plot by default. Legal precedents seem to suggest that a court would uphold our right of access if it did go legal anyway, so feeling less concerned thatn a couple of days ago.

Our plan B is that we have purchased a strip of land that runs from the road to our plot and parallel to the existing drive such that as a last resort we can put in a new access drive to 6 Brookvale.

Trainee land registry expert from Clifton

Something's definately happening!

The wheels may grind exceedingly slow, but eventually they start to move. It appears that although our planning application has not been shown as registered last week, the owners' of the cottages next to our "plot" at Brookvale have received planning notices in the post today.

We had decided a couple of weeks ago to produce a double sided newsletter which introduced us to our "neighbours to be", and included copies of the elevations of the house, and a plan of the siting of the house on the plot. This newsletter has gone down very well apparently and we've been promised at least one letter of support. Hopefully, we won't get any moans from the other residents!

More cheerful of Clifton

Something's happening - I think

Having checked the council's weekly list of planning applications received, ours is not on the list. However, the cheque that accompanied the planning application has been cashed (hooray for on-line banking). So, something is happening, but who knows exactly what. Oh to live in "Council World" - its like a parallel universe where reality is "not as we know it Jim" to use that well known Star Trek quote!

Slightly less miffed of Clifton

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Not a good week. Having checked the local council's list of new planning applications over the last 3 weeks and not found ours, we received a letter from our architect telling us that it "appeared" we needed to produce and complete a deed in respect of the 106 Agreement. This was a mechanism designed to ensure that big developers provided suitable facilities and amenities. However, this agreement has now been adopted by almost every council and in this area applies to every new build, even a single house. The effect of the agreement is to add a charge on to each new build - in theory to contribute to local area facilities. A 3 bedroomed house attracts a 106 charge of over £12,000!

On telephoning our architect he seemed a little vague as to whether this deed had to accompany the planning application before it could be registered, but assured me that our application had been submitted. He suggested that I telephone the council to find out the exact position.

Having pondered why I employed a dog and was expected to bark myself, I did what was needed and arranged to visit the council to see a duty planning officer. Despite the fact that the planning officer knew little about the niceties of the 106 Agreement, a quick visit to their legal department produced the answer - the 106 Agreement did not have to accompany the planning application, and I was advised that the 106 was not on the checklist of things required with a planning application - something our architect should have known.

The planning officer then asked me if I had a reference for the planning application as we should have received this as a form of receipt. As we hadn't received anything the planning officer checked on new applications, and, ours had not been received.

So, the net result of my visit was a rather vague requirement to copy the sample Deed of Covenant that made the 106 Agreement a binding legal charge, and the discovery that there were further charges associated with this - the costs for my solicitor to draw up the document, and amend it if it didn't measure up to the council's requirements, a charge of £310 levied by the council to cover their "reasonable" legal costs, and a charge of £175 as a monitoring fee for the council.

Anyway, a quick call to my solicitor and a trip to him with the pro-forma deed document saw that under way. Next, a call to our architect....

I got the impression when I spoke to him earlier in the day that he wasn't that convinced when he said the application had been submitted. When I told him (late Friday afternoon) that I was a very unhappy bunny, he became rather defensive and even less sure of his facts. Apparently, he couldn't tell me much because his secretary had dealt with it, but he was sure she had delivered the planning application in person. A check of "our file" produced no tangible evidence of anything useful and the response that we would have to wait until Monday when his secretary would be in the office next.

So, 4 weeks have been wasted since the last post when the plans and design statement were drawn up and should have been submitted.

Despite quite liking the architect as a person, I am becoming concerned about his lack of attention to detail. Prior to the confusion over the planning application, changes that we had requested to the plans he had drawn up had not been correctly reproduced in the subsequent iteration, despite giving detailed notes, or indeed revised drawings. Hmmm, time for a change perhaps?

Lets's see what Monday brings.

Very Unhappy of Clifton

Our architect has now drawn up a revised Design and Access Statement, together with slightly modifed plans. Our latest design has a slightly larger bedroom and the dividing wall between the "loft" lounge and study area has been removed to make one large "L" shaped area in the roof space. In addition, a wood burning stove has been included in the breakfast room with an internal flue running up into the loft space (so that the heat can be used) and then exiting through the roof near the ridge.

So now, with plans finalised, and a new Design and Access Statement written, all it needs is a cheque for £335 to Mid Beds Council, and fingers crossed.

Had a meeting with the architect to discuss the finer points of the house design prior to a full submission of the revised plans. This needs to include a design statement of what we are trying to achieve and how the house will "fit in" with its surroundings.

Once the plans and the design statement have been finalised, its off to the planners at Mid Beds to see what they think. If they have no objections, the plans go forward for formal approval.

Its a good job we're working to an April 2009 start as it'll take that long to get tjhrough the red tape!

The plot thickens

One bit of news - well, no news really. The man we thought owned the access road (who we wrote to 6 weeks ago to ask permission to use the road) - doesn't! (Own it that is) He has referred us to a Mr Hyde (alias Dr Jek.... no surely not) Another letter has been composed and will be sent tomorrow.

Spent some time this morning pegging out the shape of the house on the plot. It did make us think about a number of issues, particularly the maintenance of the hedgerow, and the proximity we had planned to have the house to the garage. Decided to move the house 2 feet further back on the plot to give more room for parking in front of the house.

This afternoon we went over the plans with a fine toothcomb in preparation for an appointment with our architect on Friday. Given the council's attitude towards revenue generation we have decided to make the upper floor totally open plan and remove the one wall that had created a room to the south west.

We also made a few more adjustments to window sizes, and made the bedroom a little larger. We even managed to agree where the wood burning stove should go!

All set then for the full planning application - probably get some news in 10 weeks from now. In the meantime I'm getting ever so slightly impatient.

Bad news today....

Mid Beds Council have declined to accept our new design as a modification of the approved plans so we have to submit a new planning application. This has two effects - firstly a significant delay while drawing up a complete planning application which will take a least two months before being considered. Secondly, it means that we become subject to the contentious "106 Agreement" which councils are using to apply a levy on new house builds (in effect a "new house tax").

This 106 Agreement was originally designed to provide benefit to an area through getting a developer to provided ameneties. However, many councils are now treating the 106 Agreement as a simple tax raising vehicle and have a scale of charges depending on the size of the property (ies). We have been told that a new application of similar size to the approved plan for our plot will now cost us over £12,500 based on a single three bedroomed property. Worse still, this has to be paid before any building can start.

Our design is basically a one bedroomed house so we'll have to see what they make of that!

Today we own the land!!!! (and garage)

With plans now agreed, the next step is to speak with the Mid Beds planners to see what they think.......fingers crossed.

Plans


Our design is for quite a small house, with a large open plan lounge/dining room/kitchen, downstairs bedroom and two rooms in the roof space. There will be a galleried lounge area with cathedral windows, and the upstairs lounge is planned to have doors that open onto the best view over the surrounding countryside - the Pegsdon Hills, and Sharpenhoe Clappers (a hill!)

In the beginning....

6 Brookvale, Upper Stondon

This is the story of the house that Jan and Rog will be building in Upper Stondon, Bedfordshire. The Google Earth picture above shows the rural nature of the countryside. The plot sits in the middle.

Preamble

We had been looking for a plot of land for about three years, and had almost given up the idea until one day in June I idly searched for "plot of land Bedfordshire", and back came this plot in Upper Stondon. It looked ideal with detailed planning permission for a 3 bedroom Potton style house, and a garage already on the plot. The price seemed right too - what was the catch? There wasn't a catch - it was a genuinely good plot in an ideal position. We agreed to buy. That was in mid June 2008. It took the solicitors until almost the end of August to get the simple contract raised - hmmmmm.

July 2008

Whilst I had an idea of the likely cost to build, I thought it would be a good idea to get some quotes so I went to two local builders - one small with a good reputation, the other larger, but with an equally good reputation. I'm still waiting to hear from the first builder who promised me a quotation by mid July. The second builder quoted me a price so high I assume he didn't want the job.

August 2008

We had a pretty clear idea of the sort of house we wanted so I asked a good friend to draw up plans - and an excellent job he did too. However, we decided that we needed an architect to help draw up our ideas and submit them to Mid Beds Council, so I researched two local firms and approached each with a brief. Whilst one firm could produce plans and provide a high level watching brief over the project, the other would get very involved and act as project manager. For those of you who watch Grand Designs, you'll know how important this can be. So, J P Roscoe Milne of Campton have been appointed as our Architect and Project Manager.

Due to the fact that planning permission had been granted on a particular design we needed to try and show some similarity between that design and our requirements, so another plan was drawn up that had features from the original, as well as being basically what we wanted.