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Well I've finally started putting the Marley Cedral Click cladding up and thought I'd post a shot of progress. Really pleased with how it looks and seems very easy to use.

It is definitely an art that looks way to easy till you try it and realise 5 mins into it your shoulders are going to fall off and your back is squealing please stop, please stop.

They won't usually pass a ramp that is portable or temporary in appearance, according to the friend mentioned above who made a weak concrete ramp. He was going to just fabricate a steel ramp (he ran a steel fabrication company at the time) but his building inspector refused to accept it, hence the use of concrete.

I can't help, but am interested in how you get on. My plan is to just build a temporary ramp (possibly even just out of wood), on the basis that building regs don't specify how they're constructed. The private building control guy is unlikely to care much, but there's always a risk that he'll think I'm taking the mickey.

I did as suggested above, and built a gentle ramp up from the drive, around the side of the house to the back door. As there was then a 90 degree turn to get into the back door, I also had to add a flat wheelchair turning space right outside the door. The door also had to be Part M compliant, and the internal access route from it to the entrance level WC also had to comply with Part M. Doing this allowed me to have stone steps up to the front door from the drive, which look a lot better than a ramp. An alternative (not one I'd do, as I have a friend who's a wheelchair user) is to do as a friend in Yorkshire did with his self-build. He had York stone steps up to the main entrance, that were not Part M compliant. To get around this he covered them with polythene and then made a weak concrete mix ramp over the top. It looked pretty grim, but complied with building regs. As soon as the house had a completion certificate he just broke up the concrete ramp, revealing his unmarked stone steps...................

Make your level access to a sisde or back door? Build the ramp ot the front door from type1 and slabs laid on sand, get it approved by BC then rip it out and build your preferred steps?

So just bought 4 clean IBCs for £18 each on eBay, delivery was expensive though but it still worked out cheaper than the specialist sites. Now off acquiring all the other bits and will update on progress!

This is the one we used - Lusso Stone 25mm, 1700x800 I think but they do then in all different dimensions. https://www.lussostone.com/showers-c6/shower-trays-c13/modern-low-profile-polished-stone-resin-rectangle-shower-tray-all-sizes-p851 We created a walk in style shower with glass along the long edge and entry on the narrow side. I sealed the shower screen glass direct to the tray itself, to do this we cut the side alu profile 2mm proud and sat the glass on spacers when fitting, sealed up to each spacer and when the SikaFlex had gone off, removed the spacers and filled the gaps. Used Nick's bombproof instructions for seating the shower tray also. Used an 8mm alu profile on the vertical side sikaflexed to the wall and a steel bar to opposite wall for stability and then just grouted the tiles as normal - its not a wet room but looks like one.

lol considering I was up at 6 this morning thinking about tomorrow, you're probably right!!!

It sounds like that's exactly what they are saying! They are using the fact that PD doesn't apply until after all the planning conditions have been signed off (or, possibly, after completion) as a loophole. I'd just cease communicating with them for now, as if there's further correspondence they will only feel the need to reply. How far away are you from completion? If it's only 6 months or so then I doubt very much if they will take any serious action, as they know full well that you could remove the fence now and replace it under PD the day after the house is signed off.

The planning officers views aren't really worth a thing in terms of enforcement, and neither are the views of the ecologist. If it were me I'd just say that I'm going to plant the hedge in front of the fence, in accordance with the planning approval, then sit back and see if they take enforcement action. Frankly I doubt they will have the appetite to do anything, other than a bit of bluff and bluster. Even if they did decide it was worth trying to take enforcement action over that might well take a year or two, and would involve them in some expenditure, by which time you'd have most probably got a hedge that would pass muster and get the enforcement action knocked on the head.