We received our planning permission for our new house. The application was lodged on 5th May 2004 so it will have taken us 24 weeks + the 4 weeks wait before starting to build to get planning instead of 8 weeks + the 4 weeks wait. My god planners are fussy B$£^&*ds.
Little background info:
I bought a site measuring 15M wide by 30M deep. Its a serviced site on a small estate about 40 sites in today. The idea is you buy the site and then build what ever you like on it the only stipulation was I was allowed build a 2 storey house where as others had to build dormer houses.
We employed an architect to do up some designs for us based on our needs. Eventually agreed on a design and plans were submitted to the planners. On the very last day of the 8 weeks we got a letter requesting Additional Information.
Basically they wanted us to lower the roof height 400mm and also we only had a gap of 1.3m down one side of the house and a gap of 1.1m down the other side of the house. They said that new planning regulation came in 2 weeks previous saying this had to be a minimum of 1.5m on both sides. This was never raised in the preplanning meeting that the architect had with the planner who said everything was fine, he had also said in same meeting that roof height was OK. As it turns out there are 5 house in total on my row I'm the middle house and also the only house of the five to get stung by the 1.5m rule between house and boundary as they had their planning in sooner than me, its just not fair. After messing around with the plans we had to remove 600mm or 2ft fro the side of the house, net result house is now 100sq ft smaller.
We then resubmitted the additional info, hoping we would know in another 4 weeks, but when the architect ran the planners towards the end of the 4 week period he was told. Additional Information turn around for Planning Permission is 4 week but Additional Information for Planning Approval (which was us as they was outlying planning on the site) is an 8 week turnaround. Well we received the letter today 1 day short of the 8 week deadline, they like going to the wire on these things eh.
Well now if I taught that the planning process was stressful then I'm really in for a shock when we start building or so I'm told. I'm sure you'll hear me rant on here over the next year about builders etc. Here's a look at the plans in case your interested.
Ground Floor
1st Floor
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