We were awarded Full Planning Permission in October 2015. The point of this blog entry is to describe the process of obtaining that permission in some detail. Bits of the process were painful. I describe the lessons I think I learned.

We were awarded Outline Planning Permission some time ago. (October 2014). And that was the moment I bumbled into (the now sadly defunct) ebuild.co.uk. That was a key event.

We live in what is a variously described as a ‘…charming hamlet…’ or ‘… a beautiful little corner of Lancashire…’ dating back to the 1600s at least. The road past our door was once the principal route up and down the west coast of the Pennines (so I’m told; I have no evidence to substantiate that). The A6 runs past our house 100 meters away and the M6 is a further 200 meters East of us

All the cottages in our row look exactly like one another: chocolate box stuff. Why there are even Great Crested Newts in the ponds. 

In our research into the processes of house design, we thought little beyond reproducing what we already could see. Pretty little houses.  But then, we bumped into the idea of passivhaus. What was this passivhaus (passive house) stuff? How much could we save by designing properly? What… that much? Getting online and networking with a group of people who had done it all before (many of them) or were going through the process themselves was an essential element in providing the much needed support. And then, as I continued to lurk in the network of online self builders, I realsised that  self-build groups were allowing me to think, more than that… helping me think

Some would argue that a poor bank balance is a problem. A poor pension something worse. But when harnessed to a bit of drive and ambition, lack of money is a useful filter. It makes us (Debbie and I) more determined.

Next step; appoint an architect. Here we needed a bit of luck: but I put in the hours and found one. A keen young man – reminiscent of a young doctor, able to listen, understand my wife (essential) , and sharp as a tack. Passivhaus? Bring it on. Cost? Hmm well, lets suck it and see.

Wart Number 1.
We didn’t explain our evolving taste in house design with the hamlet well enough. We tried, but you can natter to folk, or neighbours all you like. They don’t listen mostly.  We talked and talked about passivhaus. Mostly, we bored people.

Design duly submitted to the LPA: good feedback from the Planner bit of fiddling here, some nudges there, done, dusted.

Waiting for the decision was a nasty experience, especially in relation to what happened while we waited. Read on.

Wart Number 2
The Parish Meeting to discuss our Planning Application wasn’t very nice at all.
There was some shockingly rude behaviour, some way off-limits commentary, and an obvious lack of preparation on the part of many contributors. Summarising;

we should build our house on the edge of the single lane road – like the rest
we should not encourage more traffic on our little lane (despite outline permission to build)
one person was rude enough to say she didn't believe we  were  planning two bedrooms because there was space for five cars to park
we should not build in wood: it should be stone – like all the rest
the wood cladding we proposed wouldn’t weather in exactly the same way as all the other wooden structures round here
we should make the house look like all the others
we shouldn’t build because of the newts
we would overload the local off-mains drainage; “Ah’m not ‘appy wi ‘it”
why did we plan for a dining room with eight table settings but have only two bedrooms?
“Yer mekin’ this application ter ‘mek munney, ‘ats top ‘n bottum on it”
the house would spoil one person’s walk down our lane
I’ve written about the delay in communicating the decision to us. And that issue still needs to be dealt with. It seems to me that this is wart three.

Wart Number three
In a publicly accountable body, it is indefensible to set a decision deadline and then, without explanation, fail to keep it
It brings the system into disrepute and de-professionalises the Planning process. Many of us in this discussion group would be severely criticised in our professional lives were we to behave in the same apparently unaccountable way.

By way of counterbalance the Delegated report comprehensively unpicked each of the points put forward (read paragraph 9)

Wart Number Four
Should have read More.
And that’s, for someone with my background, is really annoying.