AliG

I don't think you have done anything wrong or unexpected. Most of my house at the moment is sitting 3-4 degrees warmer than outside at the moment. The only areas that are not warmer than outside are the garage and a cupboard that have no windows at all. The WC with a small obscured window which faces north is still a couple of degrees warmer than outside. In an insulated space with windows solar gain is likely to make it warmer than outside. I don't think that changing the materials would make much difference to this. You can limit the solar gain via shading, sizing and orientation of windows, but without some kind of active cooling method that is as well as you can probably do. I am finding that the air temperature stays high well into the night at the moment. Opening windows will help during the nigh, but mainly in the say 2-8am period.

That's just bizarre, they hardly make things better!

I didn't realise that was the link to their application. Looking at the previous refusal in 2019 it appears that every piece of work they have done has come with an enforcement notice for not keeping to their original permission. A total of nine enforcement cases. There appears to be an outstanding enforcement notice from 2018 on the side extension 2018/1775/ENF. This would normally be permitted development, but because the house is on a corner it is not and they did not apply for planning permission. It was outstanding when the report was written in 2019, I cannot look it up. I would try and find out what has happened to this. I don't see how they can't have to apply for retrospective permission. Planning was already refused for the garage last year. I would be enquring why this has not been enforced and they are being allowed to apply again. As nothing has changed, it should be refused again. It also appears that the council owns a strip of land between the pavement and the gates, so they do not actually have legal access. There is also a post box that they have built the driveway around. This I note is not shown on their plans and would again suggest that they don't actually own the land. It looks to me as if they are just chancers and have figured out that the Council is not willing to fight them to enforce things, so they just do whatever they like. Also that gazebo type thing in the garden would need planning permission as it is in front of the house.

Was there any communication in that period or reason for delays?

Outdoor pools are a nightmare to heat, most people only use them a few months a year. For me though the issue would be keeping leaves and stuff out of it, this would be almost impossible in our garden. What started me on it was the plans for, I think Mark Wright's new house with a pool and massive outside seating area etc. That looks great on a plan, less good in our weather for half the year.

I am not sure how relevant the dropped curb permission is. Could easily claim it is just for storage.

Yeah. He was talking about someone putting in an outdoor pool. I said they are crazy as they cost a fortune to heat and would need constant cleaning. He said it’s ok the staff just do it.

1. They use larger heavier pots and gas ranges are probably less likely to break under severe use. 2. Some things such as using a wok might be easier with gas. 3. Gas ranges are probably cheaper. 4. The chef doesn’t have to clean their own hob! I presume the ban will extend to commercial kitchens at some point. You do get commercial induction jobs now.

Looks like a lot of the stuff my pool does automatically. Guess you might call it routine maintenance. TBF the guy who put mine in says a lot of owners have staff who look after them as part of looking after their house or garden. https://deependpools.co.uk/pages/service

Just a quick update. Due to COVID the guy was not able to get out and service the pool, we would have had an emergency visit if anything was required. The pool went over a year without being serviced and everything continued to work perfectly, meanwhile I just saw an installer online recommending that if you have one of their pools installed it should be serviced every two weeks (every week if the pool is outside)! Admittedly I do have to drop the cleaning robot in every two weeks and then pull it out when it is done, but that is it. If any of the chemicals run out, I can just swap them over in seconds. So I think for the Dryden Aqua DA-GEN system that I have which automates pool disinfection then 6 monthly visits are fine which massively reduces running costs.

The kitchen people supplied a 670mm wide cupboard for our laundry room that the washer and dryer are inside. The cupboard was also deeper than normal and all the other cupboards had to set a little away from the wall, so you do lose a bit of space. It looks tidy when not in use, but I actually find the washing machine door behind the cupboard door to be a bit of a pain and often wish that there were no doors on the cupboard. Basically I don't like the way the washing machine doors bangs into the cupboard door when open. Also the cupboard doors are a bit in the way when loading the machine. You can close the door when the washing machine is running, but if you have a heat pump dryer it requires ventilation so the for has to be left open. One thing to watch is what side is the door hinged on and make sure that the cupboard is hinged on the same side, unless you have a split door like you have shown. One thing that I don't like in our room is that the washing machine happened to be hinged on the side closest o the door, I don't think it would be so annoying if the door was on the far side as you come into the room, whereas the door is between you and the machine in our layout. TBH I am not sure it is worth it, it is after all a utility room, no surprise to see a washing machine in there.

We had to but they were approved yesterday. It has created a 4 month delay between getting Scottish Water and planning's approvals. The 4 month delay would not have been so bad if it was not on top of endless previous delays in the planning process.

I did this when I emailed the head of planning on the 27th May. What I didn't expect is that the planning officer would not actually do what he said he would do in the response to that complaint. There is also the issue of being somewhat at the mercy of planning which is an arbitrary process. The architect was extremely nervous of me complaining and then the planning department becoming more awkward or refusing planning. This makes it much more stressful than a business transaction where you can take your business elsewhere or can exert pressure via social media complaints and so on. I think this lets councils in general away with acting in ways that no business would ever get away with. I am sure I am not the only person told not to complain in case it goes against the application.

Yes the redesign is minor, it’s the wasted time and stress that’s the problem. There is also the matter of extra costs due to the timing. Luckily we can cover them, for some people it would probably be a deal breaker.

Original plans for comparison