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