Ferdinand

Indeed .. the space standards are Guidance, and the parking is the biting edge. However, I have seen previous Applications refused on this basis. Given that these guys are rack 'em and stack 'em merchants from outside the area trying to extract the most money from my town by walking the edge of the rules, and who are quite willing to ignore the rules / law and exploit others when they can get away with it, I am quite happy to make their life difficult. Unfortunately our council are not the most effective in this game. They have a conversion just across the road in this ridiculously congested area for parking where their scheme included 3 off street parking spaces. Less than 2 years later those parking spaces have been fenced off as a private garden. Elsewhere they have had properties occupied before fulfilling Planning Conditions, and required complaints and enforcement to require them to create their promised off street parking spaces. Such freeloaders are not welcome here imo. Ferdinand

An UNSAFE claim strikes me as meaningless without some evidenced or carefully argued basis i.e. FUD. Just gone to the trouble of measuring one of the proposed flats using the area tool on the council website and the living space is a third less than the recommended space standard in council policy. For some reason the area of each flat is not mention on the application, nor is the overall internal area of the development. These people seem to be aspirational tenant exploiting bastards. I reckon the development as proposed will give a return to investment of 20-25% at least. One and a half barrels and ideally a call in to committee required, I think. Ferdinand

Here they do consider comments up until the decision is made, though if it is going to committee you can miss getting proper attention if you miss the deadline for the circulation pack or the final freeze of the officer report. Extra bits of paper on the day confuse many illprepared committee members unless there is an engaged Councillor to lead them by the hand. Discovered that when they asked us on three separate occasions to delay our planning app because they wanted more time, and extra comments kept getting added, though ultimately our application was objector proof because it was very thorough. We had a petition and Lib Dems going ape (end of Nimbyworld leaflet 3 days before the meeting to place attention-seeking councillor at the head of the mob in the local paper), but no facebook campaign. I am planning to frame my objection in terms of the parking report being rendered out of date by subsequent events rather than mention the appeal as that will just stir up defensive thoughts and make them think about arguing that the Appeal wrong decision means they are bound by it now. Ferdinand

Spoke to the Council. It feels that they don't want their nearly-made decision on a further application for an intensification of the development derailing by someone pointing out in writing that the Parking Survey they have accepted that allegedly demonstrated around 40 on street spaces within 100m is now out of date because about 35 parking spaces it relied on are no longer available because they have gone or because demand has increased :-). The Appeal which was approved for the less intensive development also accepted the same inaccurate parking survey. Not sure where that leaves it for the new application, which claimed the Appeal Approval as a legal demonstration that there is no parking problem. Shades of King Canute ! Heh. F

A quick procedural one. Can Third Parties give any input into Appeal Hearings? Clearly there is only a right of appeal for the party that had their Planning Application refused, but if the applicant Appeals to the Planning Inspectorate, can a third party make a written submission? I ask because my Council just lost an Appeal for an application refused on parking and amenity grounds for a large HMO conversion in an area of terraced streets, and the Inspector accepted what is patently a dodgy "available parking" survey from the applicant. IIRC it even included several reserved disabled spaces as part of generally available parking. The Council lost because: 1 - The Inspector accepted said survey. 2 - The inspector did not account for the loss of 23 offstreet parking spaces leased by the previous owner of the building (Medical Centre) to relieve the parking problem, which the survey identified as currently available in the survey, but which are about to have houses built on them. 3 - The inspector relied mainly on calculations that the two-person room occupancy routinely used by that LL was a "worst case" to work out new vehicles. In effect istm that the Council perhaps didn't sweat the detail properly. A two page demolition of the Parking Survey and a proof of the existing LL policies would have done it. It will be chaos, but now this bird has flown - short of a High Court action or restrictions through HMO Licensing. Hence my question above. Plus one other - is a subsection specifically for "Planning Appeals" appropriate in this part of Buildhub? Might be useful. Ferdinand

I reckon I would want 50 years "expected" life. F

There is probably a value in writing a DAS in tandem with your early sketches even if only in outline and with yourself and your close commenters as the audience. A good way of framing your thoughts.

Follow up note after 6 momths. I fitted the fan called the Airflow Icon, where the aperture opens like the petals of a flowers of a flower, and it fixed the problem 95%. Has been reliable, and I am now fitting them for tenants s an anti-draught while not running device, I bought mine from Amazon at slightly less than the price quoted above. Ferdinand

Cheers. Ferdinand

9% discount card?

MIstress is a far less stressful option. For a time, anyway.

OBviously intended for use in wet rooms . Ferdinand

DRemel Platinum Corded £100 not £180. https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/c7h/Dremel-Platinum-4000-6-Corded-Multitool-Attachments-Accessories/B007651OPW/ref=gbps_tit_m-2_f0d5_a28893f7?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_p=4808a463-9983-450d-b1a6-173fab8df0d5&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-2&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_i=193201031&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=QNPD9XBHSN2CDXFGMH97

The point about Ex Planners from an LA is that they can easily be either Aristotle or Mr Magoo. What you should get is someone who knows either the law, the local policy and the hot buttons of the staff, which is why previous successful appeals and applications of the same type are a key place to research. Our previous Director of Planning went to be a senior manager in a planning consultancy, and I would characterise the guy as a pretentious t*sser. SAw one application he had coordinated for a difficult Housing project and there were a series of schoolboy errors and some basic documents not even included. We paid a large sum for our Planning Consultant as the Local Plan was up in the air and we needed to argue the presumption for susrptainable development principle in the face of its sudden exclusion from the next version of the Local Plan. Happy to forward copies to those interested as a different example to the one linked in this thread, but I am still not willing to link publicly to our development. We also won on Appeal. IT was a Housing Estate site, not a single dwelling, but an interesting contrast. Our PC routinely appears in Public Enquiries and Courts, and would be an excellent barrister. I also wrote about selecting consultants etc at some length here: DIsagree with the comments about underpaid public sector in general. E.g. Our Doctors and Teachers are some of the best paid in the world. Ferdinand

YOu could do 175mm as Wickes, for example, do 175mm Loft Legs at under £1 each. Ferdinand

Just to note that when plastering we know the amount of moisture that has gone because it is "x" buckets full that we can count when mixing, Plus body sweat etc. Ferdinand

Dehumidifiers are a classic buy and sell don't hire item. A new one will pay for itself in a very small number of weeks in hire charges. Suggest you consider buying something like this Ebac BD70 'secondhand, or the next one up such as a BD150 http://www.appliancesdirect.co.uk/p/1016900/ebac-1016900-dehumidifier?refsource=Apadwords&gclid=COD2reS8vNACFVU_GwodXuUDJg eg http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EBAC-BD70-DUAL-VOLTAGE-INDUSTRIAL-DEHUMIDIFIER-Set-240v-/222319718874?hash=item33c349b1da%3Ag%3At9sAAOSwHMJYMBm9 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EBAC-BD150-Dehumidifier-240v-/152320293685?hash=item2376ff3b35:g:FuMAAOSwcUBYLHYv 250 to buy, sell for say 150 later, and perhaps 30-40 a week to hire. Ferdinand

One which didn't make it through: What about 70mm PIR x3 Or x2 which may shave costs due to 70mm being a sweet spot (due to that thickness just meeting building regs for floors?) Often 70mm celotex is cheaper than 60mm iirc. Ferdinand

11% cash back via Quidco on Viking at present. Which should pay for your new PSU.

HI @readiescards Obviously you want that insulation on the slope of at all possible. But you don't say what your price is for the Xtratherm. I make it about £25 per sqm of 200mm insulation picking a price off the internet of 36 per 8x4 100mm board. The B&Q celotex deal I pointed out last week comes in at about 21.5 to 22 per sqm, but you would be using 1200x450s at 50mm thick and so more gaps. You would need 100s. Ferdinand

You will now need the correct type of isolator etc for the bathroom etc I think and other bits now need their own circuits, so don't underprovision :-). We had out CU replaced (not moved) a couple of years ago as it was a 12 way and full, and we needed space for a new way for the free car-chargers available then, and to be ready for solar panels. We jumped to a 20 way double and it came to £700 including a new cooker circuit, one double socket, a lecky check, and a boxful of spare RCBOs. For your circuit extensions I would be tempted to put new runs in to a convenient socket, or add some new doubles in if you could use them, rather than pfaffing with junctions. Reckon on £500 for the unit and fitting plus your new runs perhaps. Ferdinand

OK. Entering Purdah.

And you will need an FCU, isolation switch and waterproof cover for that LED. If you keep the Loo Rolls in the fridge, the internet-fridge can autotell Tesco to send some more.

Just trying to avoid you having to go to Sainsbury's with dodgy kecks. Personally I have a roll spike and a shelf in a cupboard. Do not think I am the one over complicating things. Why not have them on a spit like a Rolodex? Or around the rim if a bike wheel like the London Eye? I am sure there must be a Rolodex person in here wanting to upgrade to a Filofax.

IIRC there is rather a pleasant angled ramp into the back entrance of the Broadgate development in London. Completely invisible from the front, but runs across a flight of shallow steps.