mjc55

i was going to ask the question this morning about the possible downsides of 3 phase supply @Alan Ambrose has certainly started the ball rolling!

Just had quote back from Scottish & Southern for 3 phase. So single phase quote (Last December) was £7149.29. 3 phase quote is £7723.25! So not significantly different. I expect the slight increase is just as a consequence of it being 9/10 months later. The quote numbers were the same so I expect they just did a bit of a cut and paste for the 3 phase quote. This is of course for a connection to an external (temporary) meter box close to the front of the site. What happens when the house is complete and we want to then put meter etc. in the plant room in the house. Do they junction the cable underground or is there a requirement to pull another (longer) cable through the ducting so that it is one piece of cable?

Interesting that the access requirements show 5m set back. I am sure that I read (or was told somewhere) that they want 6m!

I am just thinking about what we really need. We have to move entrance onto site from the corner to the middle of the frontage of the plot, this was a highways response to original OPP. The frontage onto the lane is around 21m or so and for the purposes of planning I have indicated an entrance of around 4.7m where it crosses onto our land. This was a bit of guesswork really but should be adequate enough I think. Any thoughts or examples from others are welcome. Attached is from site plan.

Thanks for that, interesting. There is nothing in the ditch in front of our land, I am thinking that we might just end up filling most of it in.

We have a similarish issue to this at our plot. There is a ditch to the front of the plot, running next door and then that is it! The ditch doesn't run where the entrance onto site is but we have to move entrance to middle of plot frontage anyway. How did you go on with this?

Had a very similar project a few years ago when I was still working as an AT in Wiltshire. Can't remember exact details but went for a pre-app (I think, not at home so can't find the job details) Was given a very negative response from planning department so didn't pursue it.

Looks interesting. Was thinking that I need something to link together thought processes and checklists that I currently use Excel for. Big learning curve or something that is easy to d/l and run with?

I do not disagree with that statement but purely because I din't know. Can you say from what position you are making it? You do not actually have to own a plot to put in a planning application on it!

As others have said Vijay, I really wouldn't let this worry you. It doesn't sound as if you are doing anything wrong and it really is not your concern if a neighbour has issues. It's a shame because we all want to get on with our neighbours but at the end of the day what is more important is your own peace of mind.

Small-scale self-build and custom build development of no more than 9 dwellings and on a site which has an area no larger than 0.5 hectares is exempt from BNG. Larger scale outline applications should be dealt with in the same way as phased development. See the BNG PPG for more information. From Biodiversity Net Gain FAQs - Frequently Asked Questions

So the build is not going to affect the extra area so I would not change anything.

how much of a change is it?

We have had a similar, if not quite the same, experience recently. After we bought our plot we found that the red line was in the wrong place. If you want to read more than have a look in this thread. The plot already had OPP but when we submitted the reserved matters approval application we put in the corrected location plan. This was turned down straight away as it didn't match the location plan in the OPP. Subsequently we have submitted a new planning application with the corrected location plan. However, my understanding - and that is all it is - I am sure others will be along to confirm or reject my thought process, is that the planners aren't particularly bothered about this as long as you don't try and change it part way through. Do you need to update it at this stage? After all, they would not get involved if things changed at a later stage. Obviously the issue does need sorting at some point but I wouldn't bother if you didn't have to.

Interesting read here Planning reform article

Why do you think the neighbour is doing this Vijay? Have you had a falling out? Have you talked to them about the situation or re they unapproachable?

Seconded

Loads of really great feedback here, thanks everyone 👋

I do remember your GCN tales when we visited you! And certainly your efforts (joint I am sure) in creating the garden look great.

We are thinking about that, but if it is a positive in planning terms then maybe that will sway us. I suppose the down side of including is that it might cause issues for neighbours if they are looking to do any work in the future.

Interesting, There is currently a ditch running along the rear of the land (in fact it runs from next door to about 3 properties away). We were thinking about using this as rainwater run-off from build (Green roof). Maybe we could somehow incorporate a small pond next to the ditch, run rainwater to it and excess will flow into ditch.

Anyone done this/thinking about doing this on their plot. We are about to put in planning application and weighing up the pros and cons of doing this as regards the application. Is it a positive for the planning process or neutral/negative. The only aspect that occurs to me is that ponds/open water are an attraction to Greater Crested Newts. We had an ecological survey of plot yesterday and are awaiting report. There are GCN's in the village but a distance away (probably 5/600m) across a couple of roads. So currently should not be an issue. Will more than likely do it anyway but wondering whether it is something we should put in statement to accompany planning app.

As no one has posted for a while and given that we will not be in a position to install ASHP until next year I thought that I would resurrect this thread! Has much moved on in ASHP world? I ask as I am thinking where to position ours and currently the obvious position would be on the outside wall immediately outside the "plant room". Neighbours on that side do not have any real habitable rooms facing us on that side and there would be around 3m (ish) between us and the fence anyway. Interestingly having a quick google brought one site up that in one breath stated that it shouldn't be on South facing wall and then it should be (???). The plant room is on the South elevation. The thing I am slightly nervous about is proximity to our bedroom. Would be around 5-6m to (clerestory) window in bedroom (single storey property) and although we are aiming for passive I am certain that in the warmer months the window will end up open (would be better to not follow up in this thread about the wisdom of doing this btw!) There would be room on site to put the ASHP unit forward of the house (to one side of driveway) within around 5-10 m of the plant room so this is one possibility I might explore. The other thing I guess is that the more I read the more it seems that ASHP technology has moved on recently so maybe noise isn't as much of an issue as it used to be? As always, thanks for all responses.

Interesting stuff, thanks for contributing everyone. We will be single storey, and although our en-suite will be next to the plant room, all other HW outlets will be on other side - Bathroom,utility, Kitchen. The plant room as it stands does make sense in it's current position and we would put ASHP and external batteries to that side. We are probably going to put HW tank in bathroom (next to utility and Kitchen) and therefore with ASHP and batteries on the outside wall not need masses of space in there.

London is a very different place in comparison to most areas when it comes to public transport. I have never lived there personally but both kids have and our niece also. They rarely used cars to move around relying on the public transport.