Ferdinand

In that case I’ll quit whilst I am ahead ?.

Surely LA have the authority to decide what gets called in. If they want to do that for all PC objections, then why could they not use their discretion to set such a policy?

good stuff. I am not sure If you can send it to committee yourself, or if you need to get a councillor to call it in. One trick. I think if it gets to committee you only get to speak if there is also an objector, so if someone objects but pulls out at the last minute, you use your opportunity. The solution is to have a friend object then put forward an argument based on non-relevant matters, which means you get a guarantEed hearing. Pity you can’t do a Potemkin extension out of cardboard or wood under PD.

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So paras 2 and 3 are PITAs you have bored through. What is the origin and evidence of this policy against flat roofs, and who formulated it? What is the policy status of the GIA limitation? I'm surprised if you cannot make a material argument based on extended family and benefit to the local community through it providing better care arrangements. Don't forget that the time limits on making an Appeal are quite tight.

Welcome. I think one of the interesting tensions is "ideology" vs "practicality" vs "long term performance" vs "money cost" vs "carbon cost" vs "quality of life". For a concrete example, if your council had told you that your house can be "x" m by "y" m in floorplan, do you go for 'sustainable' woodfibre insulation, or for something theoretically less sustainable, such as PIR, but which is maybe half as thick for the same amount of heat saving, and results in more space inside or lower bills for the same thickness of wall and more emissions over the house lifetime. And how does that integrate with politics / ideology. I was involved (as an individual subscriber) with a project or two in Brum from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s (IIRC) based at the West Hill College in the Selly Oak Colleges (usually around initiatives by David Clark, who now lives in Bakewell), which were mainly absorbed into the Uni then gradually ceased to be able to be their own centre. I always found 'Ecotheology' (though I wouldn't call it that) interesting as an important area in thinking amongst Industrial Chaplains and other similar networks, and sodalities which emerged from the hippy movement. On here I think we lean towards long term performance and money cost as we are mainly spending our own money. A particular thumbsup for the "theologian" - a lot of people these days think theology is a good joke for children. Cheers Ferdinand

Don't forget that 50 miles would also cover a good amount of Derbyshire and Leicestershire, and also the triangle around Coventry. I am not sure what impact the current Coronavirus will have on prices and the market - whether people will flee the city and rural plots will get more expensive, or the converse.

That is an echo of burnt toast being acceptable on a small boat.

On anagrams, I just discovered the Goddard's Brewery story about their Duck's Folly beer, and Lloyds of London. https://goddardsbrewery.com/behind-the-scenes/history/

It depends. If eg you want to keep plasterboard or dry wood or paper in there, then having bare garden walls in the unit will provide a way in for damp (no DPC). So say a 6ft x 14ft lined shed may be the better option. Or you could use the walls to support the structure and have a decoupled lining to isolate it from the walls and perhaps insulate. F

That says at least that you will probably want to to be a more detached from the structure job rather than use the existing walls (could be coating or lining or a close fitting buiding), as garden walls will always be conduits for damp.

Welcome. All of those are doable, but it revolves around your requirement. Really, that is what you want to do in it, when, and in what conditions. eg is it a 12 month need, or for the summer. Does it have to be bone dry, or merely rainproof? What is going to be in it? I would start with a bullet list of "what is it for?" in about 250 words. If you are right up to the boundary you may run into a requirement for planning permission.

I would also talk to a smallish local gate fabricator / fitter as a control. I found a custom one to be quite competitive including fitting. Around here there are a number .. a couple in each town. F

Have you had Loaded Vim? Or Valid Demo? Some people can do it .. but not me, unfortunately. I can do more with maths. One of my favourite websites since about 1995. https://wordsmith.org/anagram/about.html

Interesting. In the early noughties, I bought a CAP-Gemini Gold Season Ticket (= unlimited for one year) and basically took a year off to go training. Not cheap - something over 5k. Did something just under 100 contact days in the year, mainly in hotels on the South Coast. Probably the most useful courses were around higher level management - TQM, Change Management and so on. But there were also a lot of technical courses, as they had just bought a company called QA Training. Good value overall, as it facilitated a career change. F

Yep I ran into that at Uni in the 1980s as part of the attempted self-justification rhetoric of the feminist. I always thought it went back well into the 1970s.

These are two Gresham lectures by the Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer. Gresham Lectures are free lectures in London, funded by a legacy from Sir Thomas Gresham (1519-1579). The first was on the centenary of the Spanish Flu epidemic, looking at the history of pandemics. The second is on COVID-19 Coronavirus.

Wickes actually do free delivery for orders over £75 (except to Timbuktu ), which I think is a lot lower than it used to be. Unfortunately several buildhubbers live in Timbuktu.

Whilst Wickes have 2 x 2,5l for £34, which is £7 per litre. Obvs minus your usual Wickes 10-20% trade and other discount, plus 5% more if they are running a Trade Offer as they did late in March. Makes it about the same price as Armstead ?, or close enough to buy on paint not price. Dulux own outlets are currently shut. But who knows what else is out there? Ferdinand

Welcome @DevilDamo. We like voluble people and photographs. I note that you are an anagram of Model Diva ???. I like your avatar - well designed to draw attention on the page.

It's also an assertion of identity by my sibling. But I think all this Heath-Robinsonism and proposals for extended self-flagellation argues for my solution. Leave them to it, and go find a cup of char.

It means you reduce your total costs by buying well. You need to find potential extra value, hidden or otherwise, that you can generate that others cannot, or do deals at competitive prices. The former of those is really just one way of making it competitive. An example for a house might be buying in Oct/Nov when the owner is facing another 6 months Council Tax on it, and may reduce the price by 5% for that and other reasons, or being a cash buyer such that you can take advantage of circumstances. I think it is @PeterW who has the aphorism that "if a plot has reached the open market, it is overpriced". F

Oh, and 7: You should look to make a great hunk of your margin on the way in not the way out.

What I do is take properties with a similar role in the market or similar as properties, work out the selling price per sqm (not the asking price), make what I judge to be appropriate adjustments for slightly different areas, finish, facilities - and that gives me a relatively conservative benchmark number to apply to my own project. Then the new or refurb premium should work in my favour.

I do not do this for a living (yet), but I have had my eye on it for a number of years, and I have my likely strategy fairly well developed. I have done a significant size PP and sell with Outline. Q: Why do you think that restoring a cottage will be a potential money pit, but that does not apply to converting a tractor shed? My comments: 1 - You need a hell of a lot more potential margin / spare capital than you think you do. Everyone will want their pound of flesh. 2 - The mindset of develop vs self-build is entirely opposite. The former is about risk reduction, cost control, what other people want and profit. That latter is about what you want. 3 - To my eye both of those projects have a diverse portfolio of risks. I think for a first project you want something simpler. I think the first one should be small enough that you can take the hit and do another one if it goes completely tits-up. 4 - God only knows where the market is going. How will you manage that risk? eg London could be full of empty offices, as the corporates all discover that all their paperworkers can do half/half weeks with not a lot of loss. 5 - I honestly don't know how to call PP or not PP. Personally I think I can select my plots such that there will be nearly a certainty of getting PP, and can find them that have not been noticed. But I could be wrong. 6 - You need to build a team of financier, architect, builder, lecky, solicitor and all the others. Ferdinand