Ferdinand

There is also this, which I need an agent to explain to me. It seems to involve crippling part of their current process. Closing a loophole? [Update: Aha, for some reasons emailed applications are not in the process. At some point they will start refusing them point blank. https://www.planningportal.co.uk/applications Please note: From 10 September 2018, there will be a service charge for submitting online planning applications that attract a planning fee. These online applications fees are to be paid to the Planning Portal by using the payment options that are presented to you as part of the application process and before the application is submitted to the local authority. Find out more.] [Further update: This is actually quite naughty; they are attempting to coral you into the revenue earning process by making it more difficult to submit a form created online into your LA Directly. https://www.planningportal.co.uk/faqs/faq/260/will_i_still_be_able_to_printexport_1app_applications Draft applications On 6 December 2018, we reinstated the ability to print and export draft PDF planning applications. This feature had previously been removed with the launch of our payment service in September 2018. You can now download and print draft application forms from 1App. The forms still hold all of the information relevant to your application; however, we have made some key changes to the draft forms, which render them invalid for submission to local authorities. These changes include: A full page ‘DRAFT’ watermark Removal of the local authority’s logo Removal of the declaration box Removal of the agent’s details] (I have attached one of their defaced draft Application forms). (The security appears to be every bit as good as other PDF documents known to the forum, though actual forms are produced on the fly) Ferdinand PP-00000000-DRAFT.pdf

It appears to apply to Agents at present, and I think to Householders who submit their own PP through the portal. At least in my neck of the woods I can still apply to the Local Authority in writing on a paper form but the process of creating a form at the Portal, printing it out, and submitting by post or hand is being deliberately impeded. Is there not a rule that Planning Depts can only charge the cost of their service (which is probably not completely recovered at present), and privatising it may be a way round that? The pitch to an LPA is it saves them processing the 25% of PPs that fail validation because the payment is wrong, and so boosts efficiency. The pitch to agents is in the FAQ: https://ecab.planningportal.co.uk/Uploads/PPQ_LPA_Guidance_and_FAQs.pdf The way payments are being simplfied is that nothing will be passed through to the LPA until the payment has been processed :-). Not clear whether that is adding value. For Agents there also seem to be some complications in that single payments will cover multiple Apps when paying back to you, and you get a list by CSV format email. @Mr Punter, to explain the extra to your customers ... ie you, you read this out to yourself in the bathroom mirror: I would say they are positioning themselves to be able to take over the service from LPAs using a cost saving / more efficient service at no cost to you argument should such a thing become law. There are about 400k Planning Applications per year in the UK for residential, so that is about £10m of potential revenue, and perhaps as much again for non-residential. Presumably Building Regs are potentially about the same. The £20 flat fee looks questionable to me, as that is up to 20%. IMO that needs a complaint to Trading Standards, or from a consumer client of an agent to their MP. It is a pretty strategy; the person who ultimately gets bent over only finds out after the fact. Ferdinand

Tricky isn't it. The first question is what level of accuracy is required for your site. In general I reckon the larger the plot and the more rural the location then the lower the accuracy. The other extreme would be a tight urban plot where a 1m error could adversely affect a neighbor or create a manifest aberration to an establish building line along a street. That is a good comment. But also remember the difference between a sizing error, and a positioning error. Positioning is wrong place; sizing is too large - and your situation will have different sensitivities to each. And also between error and "error", the latter being slightly deliberate because you might want an unofficial 6" more in the width of your garage. If the 2 sides of your house have convenient measurement "errors" in different directions, then they will be rightly giving you an old-fashioned look. It can be got away with, but you would be playing blind man's buff. My dad had one where somebody had had an Approved Design that was bigger than suitable for the plot, because they had an argument with the chap the other side and tried to move it by stealth so the foundations were 18" away not 3 feet. He made them move them by threatening to get Planning onto it, and it ended up 18" narrower. The cockup was probably because they had not done their homework when buying the plot, but a lot of people building things would have tried to bully their way through it or create facts on the ground. Had it reached eaves height the Council would not have enforced as being "inexpedient". If the change had been say 10ft to 8ft away, there would have been no objection. Ferdinand

That looks really good.

Blue stripes ?

Looks good. That insulation on the garage could be by Le Petit Bateau.

I think we want a comment from one of our resident architects on this ... afaics the terminology is at cross purposes. eg Some people are talking about S106 contributions ie agreement with the council, whilst the op is saying this is a Unilateral Declaration, which is a Commitment signed as a Deed rather than negotiated. These two are treated differently in significant ways. I had a Unilateral on the piece of family land we sold, and I think the developer who bought it missed that, because they had to go back for a completely new PP rather than the normal ‘renegotiate the S106’ approach when they wanted to save some money on the Planning Gain. I have no idea of the interactions between two unilaterals on two planning apps on the same piece of land, though if I had one Unilateral in place that I had paid the contribution as well as the fee, I would go for a S106 on the second and try and rely on the dosh that had been paid, arguing that the second contribution should only be paid if the previous one had been recovered, or similar terms on a Unilateral Mk 2. I would try and make the second contribution payable only when the first one had been returned for whatever reason. I would expect to pay a second (possibly reduced) fee, since some of the work by the Council would have already been done. However, it is a complex situation. is @the_r_sole in the house? Ferdinand

Gravel board moulds with that finish probably exist too, and could be made up by your local fence place at a tenner each, perhaps with holes for bolts. It would redefine the meaning of "industrial style concrete finish". But I am not sure I would want a wall surface of gravel boards, just from a "what if one fell off" point of view. F

Can anyone advise me what this mini beam is that we have discovered in my cottage end wall? We are patching rendering and have found 2 small beams in the gable wall of my 1850s cottage. It is original. The one on the LHS is completely rotten, but I am not aware it has caused any structural failure or that anything has moved. I am not sure what it is for. It cannot be part of a roof truss as the horizontal is not all the way across - unless there is a type of semi-truss which relies on the joing from the beam to the wall to provide the strength in tension. It is to support any orthogonal joist as the other side of that wall at that point is a bedroom not a roof. It almost looks like a mini wall plate for the table wall. The wall is only half brick. As I cannot see any real issues, I am inclin d simply to tprake it out and full with bricks and mortar. Ant comments would be most welcome. As an indicator of how mini this house is, I think the top platform on @Mr Punter‘S scaffold tower is at about 3.7m. Ferdinand

It means you talk too much. ?

Well, it is a solution. Or feed her and you anti-diarrhoea-etics whenever down there, so you get pellets like a guinea pig in your composting loo. I would suggest a loo at the top of the stairs. Ferdinand

On the PP issue, a couple more things. - These days houses on corners can easily get described as having TWO Principal Elevation, on the basis that both face the road and the public have to look at them. You can then get the restrictions on both sides. Sorry. - On the boundary, no map will tell you exactly where the boundary is due to thickness of lines etc, unless it is a special Determined boundary with professional surveys and things, with agreement from both sides. Since yours is with a road that will not he in place. - The General Boundaries Rule https://www.tanfieldchambers.co.uk/2018/02/22/the-general-boundaries-rule-land-registry-plans/ states this. the precise boundaries is determined by what is written in your deeds, and ‘boundary features’ on the ground (in your case the old hedge and the edge of the road), and then they ie a Surveyor if it is critical to know the exact place, make a judgement. ferdinand

There should be apps available, though both IPhone and Android can record incoming calls. Or use something like Skype on your PC, and record that. F

Record the call?

Oh god, he’s putting a chocolate fountain in, which is what happens when a macerater goes wrong with an unfortunate failure mode. TMI? ?

It is from the graphical display of Planning History in the interactive map in the Planning Section of the Council website. You get to it by searching for a PP in your postcode area or street, then selecting the map display, or possibly via a service such as My Council which will talk about council services to your address. They usually have somewhat-buried tick box options for displaying various Layers of data. F

Tell us about your windows and your ventilation. Is your damp related to the building or the lifestyle? Sounds like lifestyle but single glazing or no dpc could be the basic cause. I generally recommend Nuaire piv, and have had them in a number of houses for a number of years. It is part of my standard fitout for the resilience. Have a look at the Nuaire Flatmaster, which is from about £200 eg Look on their site for the info or eg https://www.juiceelectricalsupplies.co.uk/no-loft-positive-input-ventilation-unitnuaire-flatmaster.html for 195 or 380 for 2. https://www.nuaire.co.uk/residential/positive-input-ventilation-piv/flatmaster For normal PIV, generally you need a void to pull air in from, and to make sure it is sealed from the interior or it will just circulate the damp. I do have units fitted into the end voids in warm roofs that seem to work ok. If I need an outlet due to good sealing I fit something like a Vent-Axia Lo Carbon Tempra HR fan or a Centa T as an outlet, as they both have configurable trickle plus a boost at the other end of the property. The Tempra may be a touch noisy for some if where they spend all their time. I have not fitted Mvhr but presumably you need really good sealing etc. Am sure the Envirovent are OK, but ai have no experience. If they can show they are in social rent organisations then they are robust. F

Good conservation feature for Mosquitos, mind. F

I am going Fri AM. F

His tenants will do that ...

(Diversion of the day) This morning there was a piece on Farming Today about vanishing ponds and vanishing toads and a report from The Wildlife Trusts, and how if we did not do EXACTLY as told NOW there will be a world ending catastrophe next Tuesday etc... In my area we have dozens of balancing ponds as part of SUDS systems on new housing estates. On a 10 acre 120 house estate, they would give over about half an acre to such features, and half an acre to an acre to amenity land. I was wondering whether such ponds and the wildlife they host are counted, and whether they are actually of any benefit to eg our toads? Both our local County Wildlife trusts are not aware of any work that has been done, and had not considered these of being of interest to them. It seems to be a bit of a gap. I think that local authorities may well wash their hands of it all once built, rather than spend money monitoring, Does anybody know of any work that has been done? Ferdinand

Isn’t yours called Thisisnotacaravan ?

Delighted to discover that a Vomitorium is actually a thing ! Never learnt that at school. The nearest now would be the exit tunnels from a football ground. Ferdinand Bonus trivia The Latin word vomitorium, plural vomitoria, derives from the verb vomō, vomere, "to spew forth". In ancient Roman architecture, vomitoria were designed to provide rapid egress for large crowds at amphitheatres and stadia, as they do in modern sports stadia and large theatres. ?

Though it remains to be seen whether I manage this with my own bathroom refurb, as it has to be stylish for what is a nice house. F

You can avoid expensive taste in bathrooms problems by buying well, most of the time.