DamonHD

My MP knows all about it, and his wife (a) is one of my ward councillors (b) has the property portfolio (c) was fighting my corner up until the point she was elected and took on the property portfolio... Rgds Damon

Thank you all: I've submitted a PDF to the planning dept by email. Now I just need to make sure that it is accepted else I shall have to drag my sorry frame through the covid plague fields on foot to drop it through the physical letterbox (though most of the building is shut, AFAIK). Rgds Damon

Common pipistrelle, old fruit. But most definitely not a fruit bat! You can see the solar panels on my roof if you work up from the word "Bonner" bottom middle by 4 pairs of houses, just above the yellow trace, at the end of the S-N terrace row. Rgds Damon

Thanks for all the comments so far: they have been very helpful and I may even be able to to get this dispatched tonight! Rgds Damon

RBK is basically being forced to do everything it can on all the land it can, and that will still not be enough in terms of its housing targets. Its position isn't easy. It is, for example, attempting to build on some local semi-waste ground that happens to be full of slow worms. Don't ask me how I know... Rgds Damon

Except that it is clear amongst other things that RBK would never have allowed *us* to build three houses on our land to sell, but will give itself permission to do so. Thus my complaint about its vast conflct of interest. Rgds Damon

Entirely my concern @oldkettle I am absolutely not after any windfall, nor stopping redevelopment out of NIMBY bloody-mindedness, since there does seem to be a continuing demand for housing. Rgds Damon

I am trying to be reasonable, and I don't really care who ends up grabbing our asset, just that we are deprived of our current fairly pleasant situation and all the work we have put in to be climate friendly. And that doing any more is now inhibited... Far from digging my heels in, I outlined a scheme that I think would save RBK much of the difference between their offer and my estimate of what they should provide if I force the issue, if started sooner rather than later, but RBK has said that it will not even talk to me for several years about purchase. And the notion of 'market price' then will be even less real... Rgds Damon

I will be working on my representation here (Google Doc, anyone can comment): https://docs.google.com/document/d/166Ip0rTNMLCGVhGfO53qB_yovM4xFpLLRQENvUCcR0E/edit?usp=sharing Rgds Damon

Come and have a read over at fieldlines.com where people do indeed play a little fast and loose, but without generally setting fire to anything. However, you aren't going to want to build an inter-seasonal store out of Li batteries to carry energy into the winter when you're cold because there's less solar insolation... I priced up an (optimistic, no-space-heat, Vanadium redox) interseasonal battery for my house which is quite low use, and it was something like £250k and sould have needed a basement dug for it. Note that we generate enough from PV to cover all our electricity (and space-heat with heat pump) use over a year, ie we're already net zero on that. Rgds Damon

My advice was indeed that: "The general rule for compensation in CPOs is that in valuing the land acquired, any effect on value of the scheme behind the acquisition has to be disregarded on the valuation date. This is known was the Pointe Gourde Principal and dates back to 1947." However: "The Localism Act 2011 discusses a 'hope value' to the land ... s323 LA 2011 inserted a new s14 into the Land Compensation Act 1961 and holds that if it could reasonably be expected that permission would be granted, then the valuation of the land proceeds not on the basis of hope, but on the basis of certainty. ... [From Porter v Secretary of State] .... Any uplift in value could therefore arguably be included in CPO compensation." So I think I may mention this to get it in the public record even if not itself "material". I do have several material points from above that I will use. Rgds Damon

This is the site: http://www.cambridgeroadestate.com/ I can't find the actual planning application in RBK's planning site. But I don't know what grounds I have to object now. RBK planning pages say that Material considerations are: highway safety flood risk appearance and design noise, dust, fumes, etc loss of light/sunlight scale and dominance archaeology sustainability nature conservation privacy impact on natural environment – trees etc parking provision Nothing about appropriating my assets. 1) I have been monitoring bat activity, since the developers and the council appear to be claiming that there is none: https://www.earth.org.uk/bats-at-16WW.html 2) And yes, the scheme is ignoring the tree loss in private gardens, for example, which is considerable. 3) Also, I have not received adequate assurance that the new build will be of sufficiently good energy efficiency to (a) eliminate space-heat fuel poverty (b) avoid needing a refit in only a few years to meet net-zero targets. Do you think that I should put something together on the above three points and submit? Rgds Damon

CPO isn't probably happening for us for five years: the plan is phased. The land agent tip is a good one, thanks, I'll hang on to it. But what should I do *now* in this comment phase, if anything? Rgds Damon

Well, this is an area that that the council still owns most of, so doing this work here makes sense. And the council is being pressured to building everywhere it possibly can to response to the demand for housing. And I quite agree that were, say, this being bulldozed to build some piece of infrastructure such as a train line, some sort of 'market price' + 10% might be fair, subject to my other caveats. But when this effectively shovels 2/3rds the actual value of my property and its location into the hands of the council and the developer, I am less sympathetic. Rgds Damon

Cambridge Road Estate, Kingston-upon-Thames, KT1. I'm not happy about it. I'd be less unhappy if we were going to be able to get somewhere equivalent and eg be recompensed for the loss of the FiT from the PV on our roof, but the council doesn't have the money for that and won't talk to me about it properly. I had to threaten to start proceedings for misuse of powers in a public office even to get to meet with officials, not the meeting achieved anything. I also am kenp to have the council keep its money (to spend on education, bin collection and the likem, rather than m'learned friends) if I can find a way to do it cheaper which leaves us in a similar position to now, but no interest has been taken so far. I *have* been speaking to councillors, but they are heavily conflicted in some cases. Rgds Damon

Hi, I have a problem. OK, more than one, but just one that I'd like this brains trust's help with! I'm not sure if this is something that is right for buildhub discussion, though I'm sure that many of you will have opinions and even facts! I'll give a very brief summary below, but what I'm after is where I should start the discussion thread properly, if at all. Mods please weigh in. The issue: The local council is planning to redevelop the estate my (freehold) house is on to triple is density. It proposes to use CPO (Compulsory Purchase Orders) to enable purchase of the land from people unwilling to leave. It proposes to pay 'market price' + 10% which is kinda common except: (1) the estate has been left to be run down so who would freely buy? (2) tripling the density basically triples the value of the land as I understand it providing an ENORMOUS windfall to the developer and the council which I see as a huge conflict of interest amongst other things (3) a 'market price' apart from being at the whim of an estate agent also will not recognise the value of low density housing close to a major town centre with good public transport links which is why we are here, and (4) we would NOT be allowed to build on our land at the density the council will shortly permit themselves to so again a conflict of interest etc. We have been served a section 13 notice to comment on the planning application by 4th December. I'd like to know what I can do in such comments to protect my position since I'm quite clear that we should be getting the developed value of the land based on advice of a fairly fancy lawyer. I'm not after making money, but rather moving to a similar freehold 3-bedroom house near London with good public transport (especially train), and that will cost more than we are implicitly being offered. I'd also like to share anything useful with neighbours in the same bind. Rgds Damon

When does SAP 10.1 land for these purposes? Should make quite a difference. Yes, I know that I should know! Rgds Damon

Letting me do all the work and catch the angst! %-P Rgds Damon

@SteamyTea may be along shortly to ask if you meant 12 panels at 320W(p) each or a total of 12.320kW(p), or something else, and also to point out that kW is the correct unit of power, not kw... Rgds Damon

Not all MHRV systems are the same. Not all use cases are the same. Not all definitions of an "MHRV system" are even the same. My simple one based on single-room MHRVs is certainly not in that mould. The kitchen one does run 24x7, generally, but the bathroom one is off for half the year. Rgds Damon

The notion of heating degree days and degreedays.net could be helpful. Rgds Damon

Not necessarily. If the rad is (enough) warmer than the room then the room will get warmer, but that rad temperature could be anything, even below blood temp* (and so feel cold) and still achieve the desired effect. What matters objectively is internal air and surfaces temperatures mainly, though I totally and completely agree that once this is sorted you need to be subjectively cosy too, whatever the numbers say. But they are two separate things for now. Please try and do some of the intermediate steps that you've been asked to and don't go jumping the shark... Some of those "pushing the system" effects need to be tested. 1) Please measure internal air temperature(s) with thermometer(s) left in place, in a consistent place (or more than one) where you spend signficant time (where the temperature actually matters). 2) Please basically IGNORE rad temperatures for now. At best I think they are a distraction at this moment. 3) Please DO TURN UP the stat setting well above where you think it should be for now. I don't add to the crowd meddling, sorry! Rgds Damon * I had a conversation with a senior guy at a HP manufacturer who assumed that the heating in a client's office was off because the rad was cold, but everything was as it should be and the rad at ~35C. So low-temperature system can be unintuitive even for professionals in the field.

Hi, 1) Humans are NOT good thermometers. Do put a simple thermometer up and see what temperatures are actually being achieved. 2) Please understand that the measure of a working system is NOT (repeat *not*!) whether the rads happen to feel hot or warm or cold when you happen to touch them, but how warm the room is (partly air temperature, partly surfaces). 3) Please just DO turn the temperature up as requested as an experiment, well over what you want, to test what happens. 4) Low (power) output does not necessarily mean low temperature. Rgds Damon

We'll probably only manage a couple of weeks before the heat goes on here: we'll see. Rgds Damon

FWIW I run our flow at ~45C as if we had ASHP, and some of our rad pipework is microbore, eg to the rad next to me, and everything works. (We don't have heating on yet, note.) Rgds Damon