Bramco

Thanks Do you have a link? Simon

That looks good. I guess the advantage over a brick built one is the triangle key access. Simon

Hi, We're some way from the road and were planning to put a free standing meter cabinet alongside the drive about as far as Western Power will go and then lay the rest ourselves up to the house. There seem to be loads of options for free standing cabinets, GRP, steel etc. and obviously various sizes. We were thinking that we could put a small CU in there as well to have a couple of sockets halfway up the drive. Has anyone done this and if so what cabinet did you use/recommend? Simon

Ours isn't but it's south facing and very well aired - it's a raised deck. So you might want to see how it goes before applying antislip. You can always pressure wash it if it does get slippy and apply it later. Simon

Well that's not going to happen - we can't be alone in having some 60's rental properties, ex council houses as well as originally privately owned (9 inch brick). There is no way we could get them to EPC C unless they lower the criteria or give us large grants to wrap them in insulation. And for a couple either side of a narrow drive to the garages at the back, you can only just get a modern car through, so there's no way you could slap a foot of insulation each of the houses either side of the drive. Just watch this be reeled back in when they realise the impossibility of making it work. Simon

Their units are excellent!! Rows of holes allowing you to put shelves at any height as opposed to Howden's etc. where if you don't want the shelves at the few heights they have decided you're stuffed. Also units go back to the wall, so you don't lose the 'service' gap that most other manufacturers build in to make it easier for the trades - must be 10%+ of the volume of the cabinet gained. Their worksurface choice pretty good - but if you want to tart it up with something else (walk on glazing for example) then the choice is yours.. Simon

I can see some from where I'm sitting!! House built in the early 60's. But they are going to freak out the next owners when we sell up before moving into the new build... But I'd say use normal sockets and wifi switches, or wifi sockets - also saves on having to buy the old round pin plugs... There are lots of variants around. Simon

+1 for WD40. Simon

Lucky you. Our village has had NTL and then of course Virgin for a long time. But..... They only cabled up the houses on public highways - the house next to our plot which is the 1st house on a private road managed to get them to cable them up. Our plot which is the next one along, they won't entertain... On top of that it will be some time before we get Openreach full fibre in the village - why would they invest when Virgin have the place sewn up. So it's back to dial up speeds for us on the new build ? And 4G reception isn't bright, so that's not really an option. Simon

Maybe.... And don't worry it goes on and on and on.... Hopefully our TF will go up in the next few weeks - contract signed last year. But today, we heard that our groundworks contractor had been contacted by his lorry driver who is due to do the muckaway to a local farmer. The lorry firm is worried that they haven't the usual certificates about the soil.... This is from an open field that has had a few sheep and horses on it for the last 100 years or more.... to someone who is happy to take as much as we can send them.... The joys of self build! Simon

chronic sorting version Come on - someone can do better than that!!

I posted this one the materials price thread. 40% drop in timber prices in the US in June -> https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/30/lumber-prices-dive-more-than-40percent-in-june-biggest-monthly-drop-on-record.html So patience may be needed. All being well our TF goes up in August - just hope the wood is already in stock at the manufacturers.....

Speaking of which... I'm sure lots of you have seen this a while ago but...

Patience..... 40% drop in timber prices in the US in June -> https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/30/lumber-prices-dive-more-than-40percent-in-june-biggest-monthly-drop-on-record.html Not sure where you are in the planning stages but I'd guess that next year prices will be back where they were. So get the quote when you're ready not before. Look at what happened to plaster and plasterboard - you couldn't get it for love nor money last year (the factory is in the next village to us and was off-line for 3 months or so). Production has restarted, scaled up and caught up on the backlog. Simon

Interesting, we also have a not too brilliant ground report and thought we may need piles but MBC have now said that we'll be OK with hardcore but a LOT of it! During the discussions, they sent us a couple of examples of piling design on which their insulated slab could fit.

Where are you? I'm sure that's not on our the list prescribed by our LPA - hawthorn, blackthorn, cherry..... nothing eleagnus..... sounds iffy to me, foreign.... irony from a remain voter...

Might take a while as you'd have to have enough like minded people to stand for election and elections are every few years. Sadly most PCs are inhabited by exactly the kind of people on that Zoom call that went viral - that's the norm, not anything reasonable But back to planning, the current legislation allows for Neighbourhood Plans - basically a refinement of the LPA Local Plan at Parish level (or areas bigger than that). There's a chance of course that these will disappear when the current mob drive through their planning changes but at the moment a Parish can have a Neighbourhood Plan and when an application is being dealt with, the LPA has to take into account what is written in the Parish NP. So if flat roofs were not liked by the PC and it was in their NP, then the LPA shouldn't really give permission. NPs are not easy to write - it took us nearly 3 years to get ours adopted. Ours was done in parallel to the LPA Local Plan and should have fed into that in terms of preference for allocation of development sites - of course the LPA went their own way and allocated a large site which we wanted designated as local green space (effectively Green Belt in planning terms). We're now going to be saddled with one of those executive ghettos with expensive tiny twee houses instead of the gradual building on a series of smaller infill plots. Self build was one of the concepts built into the plan - although it's almost impossible to get it dealt with properly. However we built into the plan that for every site to be developed the PC should create a design brief - this allowed us to challenge the developer of the big site to change a number of things, including having more 1/2/3 bungalows and more affordable housing (although affordability is a joke). The design brief concept could have allowed us to create a design brief for a plot that had a certain %age of self build. I'm not on the PC and couldn't get them to demand this of the large developer though. A lot of land around the village is owned by the church - much like a lot of villages I guess. We managed to build into the plan a Rural Exception Scheme - these are great for affordable housing as they are developed by housing associations, the LPA has to keep a register of local people interested in a house on the scheme and there are various options for renting and part purchasing - and the housing remains in perpetuity for local people. You need to have a lot of time on your hands to get involved in this though, so I'd still advise looking for housing that will in all likelihood be coming on the market in the next few years and making sure you are ready if and when one comes up. Simon

The registers are simply a way of assessing demand for plots - no LPA is going to allocate a plot afaik. What they do with the info is to run it into their 5 yearly planning policy exercises where they create or revise their Local Plans - Local Plans should have enough land allocated to meet projected demand. LPAs don't put land forward, land owners do and it's registered in the SHLAA strategic land availability something or other. When it comes to the Local Plan 5 yearly revisions, LPAs should use this as the source of land for allocation but of course it's a free for all when the Local Plan is being updated... He who shouts loudest, has friends in the right places etc. So if you are holding your breath waiting for a plot allocation from the LPA stop now! You could look at your Local Plan and see if there are any land allocations for self build and then you'd have to approach the land owner/agent but in all likelihood all of the plots will have gone almost as soon as the plan is adopted or even before. A more productive way maybe of finding a plot in the local area is to drive round areas you like looking for badly maintained bungalows (the owners may be on their last legs) and keep an eye out for them coming on the market. It would likely be a (nearly) demolish and build of course. It's also worth putting a nicely worded letter through these doors to say you are a couple looking for a new home in the area and see the property has lots of potential etc. etc. And keep doing the lottery - one line a week - you never know!! And GOOD LUCK!! Simon

Don't think councils can make pre-app advice public as I think it would be against GDPR regs. I've never seen a pre-app advice on an LPA planning site. If you do ask for one and then go for outline or full, then the fact that pre-app advice was sought should be mentioned on the delegated report that goes (or should go) alongside the decision notice. Some of the info from the pre-app advice can then be made public in the report. Simon

@Roundtuit So did you have to show that soakaways wouldn't work based on permeability tests? Or did you simply point out that the site drained into the watercourse anyway. I'm assuming that as you are in Cambridgeshire that the site was pretty flat? It would save us a lot of cash if we didn't have to put soakaways in. Simon

Tell that to Apple and many other electronics suppliers that manipulate prices and always have done... Simon

We were told that we had to use soakaways for surface water even though there is a dyke in front of the property and I seem to recollect that came from the Trent Valley Internal Drainage Board even though they don't manage our dyke, they still have a say into what goes into dykes as they eventually meet up with one of their managed watercourses. Have you spoken to your local Drainage Board because they might have more skin in the game than the EA? Simon

@ToughButterCupIndeed - we read everything we could lay our hands on and worked out that a) they were wrong and b) we'd probably have to go to appeal but we'd try to get them to see sense first - stupid idea...... we should simply have let the application fail and gone straight to appeal! @JohnnytYep - this is where, if anywhere, consistency is applied. LPAs aren't consistent across the country and within LPAs, officers aren't consistent. Anyone wanting chapter and verse on case law on the NPPF should consult -> https://www.amazon.co.uk/Interpreting-NPPF-National-Planning-Framework/dp/1916431526 Excellent book and worth every penny if you want to find the relevant case law. Simon

Wish I'd known about this a few years ago!! Our 1st application was recommended for refusal by the case officer based on the pre-app report written by another officer. The plot is in the Green Belt but in-between a row of houses, so should have been recommended for permission to be granted based on the exception in the green belt for infill in villages. During discussions prior to the application going to committee, we pointed out that at the same time as the pre-app case officer was stating that 30m was too large a gap for the plot to be infill, she recommended granting permission for another application (also for infill in a village in the Green Belt) where the plot width was 100m. Permission was granted We couldn't get our case officer to make any concessions about consistency - he would always state that each application must be examined on its merits and this was repeated ad nauseum in the planning ctte meeting by the chief officer in answer to questions from ctte members about consistency. In the end the ctte was split 6-6 and the chairman voted against granting permission, we reapplied and had the exact same result the 2nd time. The appeal inspector though, essentially told the LPA they were 'WRONG' and permission should have been granted. We used all the various legal decisions about Green Belt and infill in our submission but I wish we'd known about this one as it would have backed up our request for consistency. And now due to that first officer in the pre-app report, we're 3 years down the line, should already have been living in the new house and are now faced with all the escalating costs due to Covid, Brexit etc. as we're only now about to break ground. If only we could make them accountable. Simon

Ok cheers.