Big Jimbo

No problem. I have a Cambridge educated planning consultant contact, who tipped me off about talking, or writing, or speaking in the negative when trying to get a planning application through a council. You only talk "Negatives" when you have, no choice.

Well done. Pop that cork.

Any progress on the leak ?

Check with your council. I expect you will have to register in order to speak.

they wont ask you any questions, but if they do, just answer them honestly,as @Redbeard above. Best of luck, but remember you are 94% there.

Exactly. Your speech is full of negatives. Why ? Are you trying to bring them to everybodies attention ?

I'm sorry but i find your own written speach, dreadful. Full of negatives. Everything, including any negatives have been considered by the professional planning office, (AND ALL FOUND TO BE OK) stop drawing attention to things that might give any councillor reason to question your application. I'm not saying i'm some sort of professional writer, but i would stick to what i have written in the post above. By the way, you are 94% there. Don't fudge it now. Get ready to pop that cork.

Good evening ladies and gentleman. Thank you for taking the time to consider my application, that has the support of the council planning officer. Should any of you have any questions i will do my best to answer them for you. (They wont ask any questions) Hopefully, with your support this evening. I together with my family look forward to becoming part of, and immersing ourselves ,within this vibrant community. Thank you for the opportunity of addressing you this evening. Thats it. Simple.

My advice. DO NOT bring up anything negative. EVER. To a bunch of untrained councillors. You have the support of the (pro) planning officer.

Now is defo the time to go full on. Ask the planning officer if they are going to support the application. Keep ringing, and emailing untill you find out. The current national stats are something like 94% of applications that go before the committee, with the support of the planning officer, are voted to be approved. I would defo attend the meeting, and use your 3mins to speak directly to the members of the committee. If the planning officer is going to recomend refusal to the committee, then i expect that the committee will go with the officers advice. How much money you want to spend re getting a consultant to speak at the meeting is up to you. I'm not sure how much good it would do. You might be better to see what reasons are for refusal. Try and address them, and get an application back in, on your free go.

I'm surprised it's only 3 times bigger. When you think about the void in crates, against rubble. Want you soakaway to last a few years. Then rubble is the way to go. If you have got great draining ground, you might get away with rubble.

You could try solvent based paint thinners. If you have already jet washed that, it still appears to have quite a lot of stains from organic matter.

@SteamyTea I think that Vim might be a bit gritty, and if you have a bag of cocaine big enough to stick your hand in, it's doubtful that you care about trying to find a small leak. Although depending on your supply, the cocaine could well have quite a high content of Vim in it anyway.

Full height glazed, with laminated glass. You wont break it. A midrail will make it look like a back door.

Water ingress is such a pain. You do seem to be getting there. I did wonder if there was something available, like a very liquid Bitumen that you could have flooded in. something that would have found its way down, and through the crack, that would have then set, but remained elastic.You would have made a right mess with it though.

Yeah, but it does work.....As does the talc.

The cap won't do any harm, but i'm not surprised that the water is crossing that drip strip. It looks very shallow, and narrow in that photo.

Can you get a grinder in and make the drip channel, wider, and deeper ?

Stick your hand in a bag of flour. Shake off, then stick your finger in the hole. The flour will pick up any moisture and show easily.

I know that there are companies out there who use some sort of water jet machine, to cut a slot alongside a tree line. i think they go 2.4 m deep. They then put ridgid plastic in the seam to stop the encroachment of roots. It must be some serious pressure they use, as it cuts through tree roots etc. There was also a granite company i used to use, that cut granite using a water jet. I very much doubt you could do something similar on a DIY basis. I used to know the owner of the Biggest basement company in London. `They used to dig a meter wide hole in the front garden. Take out a portion of the footing. send in a micro digger, and would underpin in 1 meter sections as they excavated. Always had a conveyor, and a couple of guys with picks and shovels for the bits that the digger could not reach. It was mind blowing expensive, but all around Kensington and Chelsea and the square m price around there was £20k at the time.

Just a thought. has anybody seen the spray on rubber ? I believe that it has been used in basements in the USA. It is quite stretchy so, does not crack with movement.

Re @nod and @ETC . The last time I fitted a steel, I painted it with a load of gloopy bollom fire paint. The building inspector when he saw it said "no need to bother with that anymore" ??

Yep,i believe you need them in both.

@Russell griffiths they are the proper job. Love em.

Well I just want to say.Well done. You will be fit as a fiddle by the time you get finished.