Topic63

To be fair I shot myself in the foot thinking I would just check with the council, then regretted even bothering! it started off with a £17.00 charge, this then changed to a standard application of £50.00 and then they wanted £206.00 for a full application......Feckin crazy! I don’t think they have any idea what they are doing to be fair and this just seems to be a money pit for them, I am convinced they would take my money only to turn around later to say I don’t need planning and they are happy for me to erect the fence......After taking my £50 or £206 of course! To the left are hedges that can grow to whatever height they want, then a footpath then a further row of hedges before you even get to the road, so I can’t see them using this as an excuse/reason. The current picket fence just looks nasty and gives no privacy if you carrying on outside the front of your house so the fence is required for a couple of reasons - Privacy & enhancement.

There is no ROW as it’s not a through road, the access is also part of my boundary so how can it be classed as a highway in any sense of the word? The only rights of access are for me and my neighbour only.

Drawing below.

The red line is the proposed new 1.8m fence, no where near a highway.

I would like some definitive answers to what to me is a simple matter, however my local planning office (Telford & Wrekin Council) are making it very difficult and costly. Background: We live down a private side access road, to the front of the property’s boundary is a public footpath, beyond this is the main road so we have no access from our drive onto any road or highway. Between our property and next door on the right is a 1M old picket fence, we would like to replace this with a more sturdy 1.8M/2M panelled fence in keeping with all of the other fences around he boundary. The council want me to submit an application plus a ridiculous £206 charge, plus all the plans of various types and dimensions for them to assess the proposed changes??? Initially the cost I was given was just short of £17.00, this then increased to a £50 standard application cost, it has now for some bizarre & unknown reason increased to this ridiculous £206.00. Am I well within my rights to replace this Picket fence with a 1.8/2.0m panelled fence without the need for planning? We are not in any conservation area, we are not next to any listed buildings, the property was built around 1999 - Why are the planning department being so difficult?