Paul Leigh

Thanks Simon, that's very interesting. I've found a handful of Infill in the green belt approvals in our local area now too. It strikes me that the openness objection is set aside in all of the infill cases as to refer to the officers analogy of a pencil harming the openness, all new builds where nothing existed prior, must also fall foul of that test. It's the same P145 clause of the NPPF that my PDL has an exemption for. I'm going to talk to a few architects who have managed new green belt buildings and see how far that approach tales me. I have an LDC for a circa 100 Sqm garage on the site already and it's been suggested I could add a basement of the same size and get that through without too much difficulty. Seems a few issues with that but thinking aloud, maybe I should get another ldc for a 300 sqm swimming pool house and then look to replace both with the actual building I want. Not, easy this planning lark.

With the Pharos point to point or indeed any kind of wireless access points it is possible to set bandwidth quotas or QoS.

You could be right but the Current house (an Oast House) was here first. In the surrounding area, there are plenty of examples of houses not on the road and are down tracks, just like mine. I've got the pre-planning advice back now, I'll read it slowly over a few nights but I've already found examples in the local area of properties where through one mitigation or another, the question of openness has been set aside. Thanks for all the valuable advice on here.

Get yourself a Pharos WiFi Access point, circa £90 for a pair. Use one at the house with the internet connection and point to the cabins where the other one is situated. https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/products/19209-tp-link-cpe510kit/ Our village uses them for community broadband (effectively Wi-Max). I additionally use one to light up my garden, if I point in the the right direction, I can get wifi about 4-6km away.

I haven't priced up planning consultants yet but £30k seems unwarranted. It's early days yet, it was just the pre app, so I'm taking it as pointer of where I need to concentrate my efforts and the message is the same, research and proof of others doing it, so they can't reasonably refuse. I have a local architect a few doors away so I'll see if he's up for the challenge first.

Thank you for the responses, some great information here. Each of the houses I can see that got PP in the district, the officer was quick to point out other mitigation, an “ah but… “ type response, to which my view is that the Openness can’t be being applied consistently, exactly as ToughButterCup points out. I’m in a small hamlet, off a B road, I’ve attached an outline of the neighbouring properties with my current house and proposed house/annex labelled. I had considered this an infill project but the guys at Potton (not using them btw) said it wouldn’t be classed as infill as was a back garden, that infill meant in between houses only. In actual fact, now that it’s been raised again, I’m minded to point out to the council that the new development would be in my side garden as my front door is 90 degrees to the road, my back garden remains untouched. Perhaps infill is a way to go here? The north side of my garden (picture is North up) is bordered by trees so there is no way to see through. Any building will not impede anyone’s view from any vantage point. Bramco, from what I understood, the council have a 5 year house supply plan but are falling short on delivering. It’s a heavily Green Belt area. We’ve agreed that the garden by virtue of it being a residential garden in a non built up area is classed as “Previously Developed Land” and I additionally have a workshop on the land and an LDC I took out for a 97 SqM garage a few years ago that I never started and the foundations of a garage no longer standing. We don’t have a Local Plan, that’s been rejected by the Gov. I took from the meeting that anything above the already existing footprint of the LDC and single storey height would be a problem for her and that the Openness clause would be used against me. This is the fight. In all other aspects she was quite helpful with saying that the plan was reasonable and nothing else stood out as a likely objection, ecology reports aside of course. Time to become a research-a-holic on openness cases then, thanks everyone.

Hi, Had my Pre application meeting today, which went quite well. We are agreed that my garden plot falls under "Previously Developed Land" inside the Green Belt and that some development is likely ok. The sticking point comes in the it harming the openness of the green belt. As the officer described it, something as small a pencil would harm the openness. I know that other houses have been allowed, perhaps with other mitigation but how can openness be tested? Thanks, Paul

Screw Piles just "seem" like a good choice. I need to have the house designed and loads calculated to make an informed choice. I had surveyors around many moons for a large garage I was considering and they were talking 3m deep trenches for the foundations due to the clay and trees. So that's a lot of concrete I'd like to avoid. It's also not the easiest site for large concrete trucks to access. Mind you, when I put a decking in a couple of years ago, whilst the first 30cm of ground was easy enough, the clay underneath was rock hard stuff. My Oast house has been on the same ground for 150 years and its foundations look about the same depth as rice paper. But you know, building regs....

Thank you Mr Punter. Yes, it's a zoom meeting, seem to spend a lot of time on that nowadays That's great point about the warranty and insurance check. I'd planned to use a fire rated composite cladding. I'm sure you're right, insurers love the non standard approach because it gives them a good excuse to up the asking price. Screw Piles are the result of my own investigations as I really don't want to be digging 3 metre deep trenches and pumping load after load of concrete in unless I have to. When I get an architect involved, I can take the advice at that point and see the implications then. Cheers.

Hi, I've been finding this forum in my search results for some time now. It's a great resource and has helped me make sense of the thousands of things to think about. I'm about to have my Pre Planning meeting in a few days with Sevenoaks Council for a self build I want to do. It's in Green Belt but in a rural garden plot that I own. I've not got an architect involved at this stage but have done plenty of work designing in SketchUp. I have rough costings for the most part and feel reasonably confident at this stage (reserve the right to change my opinion on this). It's a modest four bedroom, one and half story timber framed unit, built as close to Passive House standards as I can reasonably get. A second building which is a double garage and office with a self contained annex above is included in the plans. Both are designed to look like a pair of Kent Black Barns. Likely going to use Screw Pile and ring beam as I'm on clays and near trees. I'm a capable DIYer and I'll attempt to do as much of the work myself as I feel able to. Paul