Ferdinand

Found it. The 10 Plots Street was first mooted around the start of 2015.

So how long were the timescales between the initial application for plots on McCloud Street to the point of finished homes? I assume they were all built some time ago? F

Welcome to the forum, and we will do our best with any queries about your plot etc. It will be good to hear from a bat ecologist. I sometimes make sceptical noises about some aspects of the Planning Process, and it will be good to hear a contrasting viewpoint. Ferdinand

10mm. http://www.acerecology.co.uk/mitigation-crevice-dwelling-bats/

These are 10 steps if your Electricity Bills are out of control in a house which has not yet been renovated. They are the "low hanging fruit". The aim is to get you started and seeing good results in a short period without too much long-term work. If your house is currently not insulated, and you have not optimised your electricity bill, savings of 40-50% or more may be achievable. Here with go with the first 10 steps, which can be done then left alone for some time - ignoring major investments like new windows and doors, and major or very detailed projects. 1 - Set some realistic targets and monitoring - I suggest, over 3 years: Year 1: Minus 20% on current bill. Year 2: Minus 33% on current bill. Year 3: Minus 40% on current bill. Record and monitor usage at some regularity ,whether weekly, monthly or quarterly. Perhaps a thread on BH or a blog post. For performance and encouragement. If you want to monitor your whole house supply, there are also meters where a sensor clamps around the main supply cable and transmits to a meter inside your house. These have been around for a long time, and the best known is by a brand called OWL. Suggest in addition to your meter and a couple of plug meters, one of those Owls or similar that clamps on the supply - use it to check which of your four buildings uses most. If nobody else can, I can lend you one - I think. Remember to keep looking for the big targets. 2 - Check the balance vs payment numbers. Is there a big credit on the account if you are on monthly payments. Can you get 10% off the monthly charge with a phone call just by challenging it? This will need a repeat check as your usage falls fsater than they notice. 3 - Change tariff. Savings on the first switch seem to be 20-30% for most I have seen try it. I use MSE Cheap Energy Club, and have it set to warn me when I can save >£150 per year. That prompts action, but does not annoy me every month. Consider a longer term fixed tariff from a decent big supplier of energy, rather than a bust-every-3-months minnow. 4 - Get the stuff other people will do for free. Call someone like the Energy Saving Trust, and see what is available in your area. For example: a - 250mm insulation in loft. I can still get this. b - Cavity wall insulation? I know someone who had this last year. 5 - Replace all your lightbulbs with LEDs. Payback time may be around a year. Especially any of those 300W or 500W outside floods. 6- Are there any visible holes? For example, light through gaps round outside doors, catflaps etc. Block 'em up with traditional draught remedies, and keep the cat in the shed, with a catflap there. 7 - i s your roof space well sealed from the main area of the house. For example, is your loft hatch sealed and insulated? New insulated ones are cheap. You will need this in place for a Positive Input Ventilation fan to work successfully. 8 - Do your extract fans have backdraft shutters? If not, switch them over. From about £30. 9 - If you have trickle vents, then replace them (foam them up) with proper controlled ventilation. Use a PIV in the house, and trickle /boost extract fans to keep it flowing. That is what I usually do in rentals and have now done at home. Works and gives some control for £400-£750. 10 - Use spot heaters that heat People not Rooms Can you tweak the heating in your garage or shed, by using spot radiant heaters rather than heating the whole thing? eg For our childrens play area at the gym we have one of these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Eterna-Quartz-Radiant-Mounted-600watt/dp/B00F2H1WF8 . Costs <£30. Bonus 11 - Over time work on the strategic stuff as you are able - underfloor insulation, 2G, dry lining, thermal survey etc. And also the tactical stuff - replacing appliances, finding small but constant loads. Turn it all the way to 12, and beat Spinal Tap - Plan a big treat with some of the savings. This may help convince the rest of your household that it is worth persevering. Wrapping Up I hope that this brief guide will get you started on some of the more straightforward and easier things you can do to cut your bills, without having too much hard slog to achieve noticeable results quickly. If you have any questions, join Buildhub and start a thread on the main forum, or comment below.

How wide is such a gap for a bat to be able to fit through?

Absolutely. Oh ! Ooops !

Welcome to the Forum.

By making a proposal in accordance with national and local policy. I would say that falls under 11 d) ii in my quote. Thinking of your example, that is catered for in detailed guidance in National Policy. And if I comply with that the Council would have to judge the costs and benefits balance of the proposal in the light of the NPPF and local policy, under the presumption to approve. They cannot say "that's not sustainable"; they have to justify that allegation / judgement on balance in "planning terms" such that it would stand up on Appeal, and if conditions can make it acceptable in Planning Terms then they have to apply the conditions and approve. That is what I see as the difference between your original statement, and my belief. Ferdinand

You used to take your clothes off when you went to bed? Bah humbug ! In Yorkshire they used to spend half an hour on the outside loo just to get warm...

True. However, here we are starting from an inefficient set of buildings .. so the biggies are more likely to be the draughts, no insulation, lecky heating in the garden building etc.

I was planning to add to this thread, but a busy (or inefficient) week has intervened. i am ignoring the simplest solution. I'll posy this to the blog as a recipe of sorts. Assuming that your uninsulated things are genuinely not good and that you are not on a best tariff (wrt targets etc), and tuning it towards things that can be done then left alone for some time (in deference to CFS) these are my top 10 - ignoring major investments like 2G or 3G for the whole place, and major projects. I don't think you said whether whether you have mains gas. These are mainly low hanging fruit / no brainers / cheap and cheerful. 1 - Set some realistic targets and monitoring - Suggest, over 3 years: Year 1: Minus 20% on current bill. Year 2: Minus 33% on current bill. Year 3: Minus 40% on current bill. Record and monitor usage at some regularity ,whether weekly, monthly or quarterly. Perhaps a thread on BH or a blog post. For performance and encouragement. Suggest in addition to your meter and a couple of plug meters, one of those Owls or similar that clamps on the supply - use it to check which of your four buildings uses most. If nobody else can, I can lend you one - I think. (Did you know Ed Milliband once promised everybody a Free OWL?) Remember to keep looking for the big targets. 2 - Check the balance vs payment numbers. Is there a big credit on the account. Get 10% off the monthly charge with a phone call? This will need a repeat check as your usage falls fsater than they notice. Change tariff. Savings on the first switch seem to be 20-30% for most I have seen try it. I use MSE Cheap Energy Club, and have it set to warn me when I can save >£150 per year. Suggest a longer term fixed tariff from a decent biggie rather than a bust-every-3-months minnow. 3 - Get the stuff other people will do for free. Call someone like the Energy Saving Trust (Scotland), and see what is available. a - 250mm insulation in loft. I can still get this. b - Cavity wall insulation? I know someone who had this last year. 4 - Replace all your lightbulbs with LEDs. Payback time may be around a year. Especially any of those 300W or 500W outside floods. 5 - Any visible holes? eg light through gaps round outside doors, catflaps,. Block up. 6 - Draughts eg loft hatch. New insulated ones are cheap. 7 - Do your extract fans have backdraft shutters? If not, switch them over. From about £30. 8 - If you have trickle vents, then replace them (foam them up) with proper controlled ventilation - use a PIV in the house, and trickle /boost extract fans to keep it flowing. That is what I usually do in rentals and have now done at home. Works and gives some control for £400-£750. 9 - For some reason my eye is drawn to that cabin. a - Can you tweak the heating eg by using spot radiant heaters rather than the whole thing. eg For our childrens play area at the gym we have one of these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Eterna-Quartz-Radiant-Mounted-600watt/dp/B00F2H1WF8 . Costs <£30. b - Can you do secondary glazing in the cabin? 10 Over time work on the strategic stuff as you are able - underfloor insulation, 2G, dry lining, thermal survey etc. And also the tactical stuff - replacing appliances, finding small but constant loads. Turn it to 11 - Plan a big treat with some of the savings. Ferdinand

Making progress with Rome. Though the iPad turns it into Rome or Rocky on BH. UKTV play app seems good for eg Yesterday, Dave etc. i am currently struggling a little for two things, after doing a bit of looking around online. 1 - an EPG, especially within the ROKU version of iPlayer. It seems to be missing. 2 - a straightforward way to browse catch up content. Any pointers would be most helpful. I am running the posh - £60 - latest version of ROKU in an HD capable Smart TV Cheers Ferdinand

Not quite iirc. In a conservation area you have to inform them then wait for a few weeks, rather than a PP. Silence implies consent. Ferdinand

If I have this correctly, that process may have some problems. I am not sure the fill-in fields will be preserved, and you may have to do it in a picture editor. But I hope I am wrong. Let us know if it works.

negotiated LOL.

Yes but they help you by delaying anything at all going to the Council until the payment is in their sticky fingers. How thoughtful.

It depends if it is eg damp leaching through, or a physical impression of the blocks. If there is no insulation in the wall I would dry line with about 50mm+ of celotex in it and skim. And use that as a lever for a new kitchen in the other bit ?.

thanks for that. Unfortunately the Online process vandalises the filled-in form in several ways when you download it so you cannot use that for a PP application ... for example it leaves off the box where you sign. It is intended to only be useable as a draft record. And so on. They are being well naughty.

This change is only the last 6-8 months or so, so you may have dodged it.

????????? Loving it...

Disagreeing with @Moonshine. No! That is the wrong way round ... the law says that development is to be approved unless there is a material reason in planning terms not to do it. The basic principle is in Para 11 of the NPPF: 11. Plans and decisions should apply a presumption in favour of sustainable development. Elucidated thusly: For decision-taking this means: c) approving development proposals that accord with an up-to-date development plan without delay; or d) where there are no relevant development plan policies, or the policies which are most important for determining the application are out-of-date7 , granting permission unless: i. the application of policies in this Framework that protect areas or assets of particular importance provides a clear reason for refusing the development proposed6 ; or ii. any adverse impacts of doing so would significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits, when assessed against the policies in this Framework taken as a whole. In law it is for the Council to justify a refusal, and show that it cannot be justified in planning terms. (Though they sometimes don't act like that). I am not really convinced much of it is to do with managing risk, unless that is for the Council rather than the community. I think that much of it is to do with a culture that seeks reassurance in procedural tick boxes and archived reports, rather than a willingness to exercise professional judgement. One problem is that there is little downside in a Planning Officer imposing costs of £££ on the applicant, to create xyz extra report, whether or not it is justified or necessary. There is (to me, anyway) a noticeable difference when dealing with 'wise owl' type 5x year old planning officers, and those who are still in short trousers and wet behind the ears. One of the things some lack is the impact on the applicant of what seem to them to be minor decisions. Two years ago I applied for a Change of Use, which involved about £4k expenditure and a hundred hours of my time, and months of consultation with planning. The planning officer applied - of his own accord - a time limit of 3 years on the change of use on the last morning, after no consultation whatsoever with me, got it signed off, and issued the decision notice (ie too late to change it). I was not even asked about my business plan, which required a 10 year CoU to justify the 100k which was to be spent on the unit. He just said "should be enough". He had previously seen an outline of our BP. The economic development people knew about it, but they were not asked either. We had to spend weeks renegotiating a complex lease. And the bloody unit had been empty for a decade anyway, which we were bringing back into use. Much criticism of Councils is fully justified. On top of that we have a number of professional lobbies on the "more checks" side who have a vested interest in protecting their income streams, or powerful single issue lobbying groups who want to use the planning system as a weapon to protect their pet cause, whilst it is supposed to be a way of balancing interests around a development. (*) Some of these groups have serious institutionalised conflicts of interest. A good example of this is the Bats Protection people, who make their money from selling training courses to batmen, and are also a key adviser to English Heritage on Bat Conservation Trust in planning policy .. which creates the demand for the thing that makes them money. This is an abuse imo. Single issue lobby groups unfortunately do not give a toss about anything except their single issue. Will explore that another time. In some cases yes. In some cases no. I tend to use it because I get fed up of typing umpteen polysyllabic words. F (*) Witness Village Greens or Buildings of Community Value.

However, remember that such reports will contain valid dates and the LPA may ask for another one if expired or there has been time since for eg bats to arrive. The ones I have seen are validity of 2 years, and I have never seen an LPA use that as a reason. You could manage that risk by eg negotiating a 25% fee for an "update" when you order the initial exercise. Ferdinand

I would leave the satellite dish until you have a roofer for something, then go "while you are up there..". If not, you want a crawler or a thing that turns your ladder into one. Probably £100-180 and £30-40 respectively. Or hire one for not too much for a day. F

It seems that if you download a blank form from the Planning Portal, you can (in theory) print it out blank for handwriting, or fill it out and print it, but you cannot save a completed form. https://1app.planningportal.co.uk/YourLPA/DownloadOfflineForms Ferdinand