ToughButterCup

Snap. (Well, almost - we started hoping in 1985) Welcome

Depends on the qualifications @harry_angel.... Very useful thread. Thanks.

Due Diligence. Look hard at things like CCJs. Pay by results , on itemised invoice and in arrears.

You have a way with words @pocster ... ?

No. SWMBO bought the land (then an orchard) for £1000. Took Gorgeous George to change one sentence in Planning Law ... in favour of sustainable development.... to make us believe we might have a chance. Honestly.

We started in 1985. Permission in 2016.

The legal distinction between Client and Domestic Client is explained in CDM 2015. There is also an extended discussion on BH here. An hour spent researching the difference will be useful for you. Apologies, in haste, at work....

Just in case anyone finds this thread and is thinking of door sizes in general, here's a link to loads of diagrams about door sizes .... I found the charts helpful to explain why I'd made the rough openings the wrong size. Nuvver lesson learned. ? Its Friday. Be Happy.

The answer is definitely yes. But to achieve that goal, in the light of the posts above, you will need to behave like a Client not a Domestic Client (CDM 2015).

Maybe put it slightly differently ... How's the labour supply these days? I think that it's the builder's role to assemble the team he prefers. He may well want one particular person - a good fast, accurate worker - but can't get hold of her / him. What penalty is there for project delays? Or better put, what incentive does the builder have for completing on schedule?

There ya go @flanagaj: I would - Just Bloody Do It - .

Yisssss! Posted just in time. Thanks very much. It takes me a-long-time-to-get-stuff-done. ? Sometimes that's a good thing eh? I agree. I have one year's worth of data now. By that I mean a year of looking most days, looking carefully when the wasps woke up, and more closely still in recent weeks. I took advice from a local pest control person and his take on it was that 10mm (our gap) was likely to be big enough to cool behind the gaps sufficient to discourage colonisation. He suggested I call him towards Back End for a thorough once over. His charge for a Call Out - £45. Anyone else, its north of £280. I'll have a cherry picker available then: should be interesting. I'll try and remember to update this post.

Of course we are. They have never gone down, and apart from a few well organised BH members (see above) , very few of us have come in ' ...on price...' (there are many interpretations of the term 'price') Grand Designs - ands other similar programmes - tendency to statistical manipulation annoys many of us. Now my approach has had to become: There is a way round this challenge : just find it and do it. If the casual converstaions I have with folk walking past our build are an indicator, there are many (BH guests I suspect) reading these posts who regard self build as a priviledge. And I agree. Mostly. To answer you directly: No, its not the wrong time to start a self build. Because prices are only one of the many challenges self builders face

Time to move?

Which is exactly why I asked what the scientific rationale is for the requirements in relation to SSIs. None, it would seem. Maybe the requirement is about volume of discharge....? A simple explanatory sentence in the guidance would clarify the matter. (Hmmm, I wonder....)

Our plumber pointed out that the position the supplier required for our meter meant that there was ample opportunity for bypass. I told him not to, as that would be illegal. I was sorely tempted. And I am no saint. Yet.

I'm looking forward to making our own built-in wardrobes this autumn. We're not able to afford professionally made built in stuff: the quotes we had were just too high. All I need now is a bit of temporary workshop space (rented) Now, I'm off to a barby to try and forget the mental image of @pocster in girly underwear. God thats gross, gross, gross.

? Apologies: hard-of-thinking on Tuesdays

Network locally. With the emphasis on work. That's the first level of attack. Local politicians, agents, developers, builders, planners. Golf course(?). Then research the LPAs website for similar applications. Read them all. Know everything about similar applications: why? You'll be a difficult target for overworked planners. Read through all the similar cases discussed here on BH. Then, put all that research together, synthesise your findings, and put them to the BH Commentariat. We'll masticate it all for you in short order.

and @Sue B, where is that requirement to be found, please? I've mis-read the GBRs perhaps? The reason I ask is that you'd have to have a huge house and as many bedroom as Blenheim Palace to get to 5 cubic meters a day..... So whats the scientific logic behind the requirement?

There you are @oxo, hard won experience from @Johnnyt. Get a thicker skin, hit them hard. Get a full-on proper Planner. One who pays attention to detail - uncomfortably so.

See what I mean @oxo? Not 319 or 321, 320mm of backset. Now, if only I knew what backset is .... life would peachy.

@oxo, how dare you call me merely buttercup. I'm tough, OK , TOUGH. Well, I was once. ? In relation to MikeSharp01's suggestion, I think if you get a hint that sustainability is an issue, then his idea would be one way of delivering that. Mike always has good ideas.....

Hmm, @Bramco, you have me sucking my teeth here. The planning application process is complex, delicate, infuriating, demanding, and endlessly interesting. So much ambition and energy (nervous or otherwise) hangs there in the balance . And a few wrong words, a tiny bit of wrongly handled micropolitics and mammaries point at the ceiling. If outside the local planning coterie, there's no substitute for reading voraciously. In every sense of the term, Planners and their courtiers are an elite. The only counter to their laziness / dismissiveness / insularity is knowledge. And they know applicants are ambitious. THE key attribute to bend others to their will. I am very pleased indeed to know that a just-in-case-you-didnt-know post was of some use. Thanks for the feedback. Appreciate it.... Ian

@oxo, I said I'd point you to some resources on Consitency in Planning. The Importance of Consistency in Planning: a good overview An earlier thread on BH about the subject Want the source of the decision? North Wiltshire District Council v Secretary of State for the Environment (1993) 65 P & CR137. (widely referred to online)