One forward, three back....

OHHHH BOY!!!!

This is a form of therapy, otherwise I might kick a dog, beat myself with a pogo stick, or scream at politicians on the TV - well, alright, I already do that!

In the words of Richard Wilson - "I don't belieeeeve it!".

I received an email from the planning officer this morning telling me that because we intend using the private driveway to access our land (a legal right we have inherited from the original plot) we have to withdraw our application, serve notice on the owner of the driveway and allow 21 days before we can re-submit the planning application. That means that we need to engage a solicitor, generate and serve the notice and then wait 21 days before we can start the whole planning application process again. It looks as though that will mean the 16th March at the earliest before we can re-apply, so decision date comes 10 weeks later - mid May now. Unless of course, another bit of bureaucracy leaps out of the woodwork as it is prone to do, and be of a serial nature.

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The unfortunate effect of this is that the 106 Agreement comes into play because the original planning approval will lapse in April 2009. So we end up paying several thousand pounds that could have been avoided.

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When you watch Grand Designs and hear that people can take 2 years to get planning permission to build a replica of a large shoe box on Chesil Beach, you think, well, yes, but it is rather ugly, and you've done well to get planning approval at all. I now sympathise utterly. In fact I'm amazed that it didn't take longer.

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When I took my plans for review with a senior planning officer he asked if we owned the access drive. I said that we owned half of it and he said no more. Now it appears that it was critical to the whole application. But its only our time and our money - nothing for the council to worry about after all.

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Ever so hacked off, totally pee'd off, absolutely fed up to the gills, disgusted, narked, dejected, aggrieved, enraged, furious, choleric, huffy, mad, sore, and a tad aggressive of Clifton