Ferdinand

I had: "I'm not sure it is inside the development boundary", or some such, from a Councillor at the Planning Meeting. The boundary is about quarter of a mile away, away from town. Ferdinand

They are the lowest tier of Civil Government in England. They have their roots in the 19c as bodies which inherited the secular duties of Parochial Church Councils - which are the governing bodies of Church of England churches. Many of the boundaries go back for the best part of 1000 years iirc, and may go back significantly further but you need a historian or Morris Dancer to explain that properly. Ferdinand

For the record, this is the ASA ruling on ACTIS Insulation: https://www.asa.org.uk/Rulings/Adjudications/2013/5/ACTIS-Insulation-Ltd/SHP_ADJ_71306.aspx#.V16VApErJhE ACTIS claims were found to be misleading throught presenting inadequate test results in a misleading manner. One of the issues was that the tests were done in High Wycombe, which is not the worst imaginable environment :-) . And this is the one on YBS Insulation Ltd (Superquilt) https://www.asa.org.uk/Rulings/Adjudications/2012/2/YBS-Insulation-Ltd/SHP_ADJ_147993.aspx#.V16VA5ErJhE Ferdinand

My speciality is getting things just enough off horizontal such they are really annoying, and people remark on it. Did it with an extractor fan. Yesterday afternoon :-). Why do they have to put their logos on the damned things? If it was white and round no one could tell. Ferdinand

I'm not sure why that mentions both "Celotex" and "Kingspan", since as I understand it they are both almost the same thing - foil faced polyisocyanurate (PIR) insulation - which are offered with several minor differences. I think you need to clarify when you post your full spec. Ferdinand

Welcome.

I would check that .. Were they in fact valid when you signed it? It has been a switchback court process so who knows... They can also be renegotiated in various circs. Perhaps a quick call to someone like Robin Furby or your planning solicitor if you have one. http://www.s106management.co.uk/about-us At worst you could wait for the PP to expire and reapply, but it is horses for courses. Ferdinand

As a rider, can one erquest an estimate of the cost of carrying out a condition from the person proposing the imposition? Has it been tried? Does that meet the 6 tests required of a Planning Condition: Ferdinand

Are archaeologists bidding for more archaeology on even modest projects? I came across this requests (excerpted) from the Derby County Cuoncil archaeologist, which includes a request that that analysis, publication and dissemination be included as part of a "modest" "monitoring" process - presumably at the cost of the developer. This is for a development of 2 dwellings and one building conversion in a former farmyard on the possible edge of a medieval village centre. I have not seen this before. Is this unusual? Leaving aside that the comment is a little ungrammatical, the Council appear to have ignored it as there is no Condition relating to Archaeology. The Bat Men are engaged, however. http://planning.bolsover.gov.uk/WAM/doc/Decision-2068853.pdf Ferdinand

I don't know a product, but can't you just get them on reels of "tape" rather than aluminium tracks, wich would be flexible?

So the "Ockham" answer to this is: 1 - Use a shower over a bath. 2 - Shower with the plug in, and leave it there for 30 minutes. 3 - Or, more sensibly, have a thing like a grid or a trivet to raise you above the level of the shower floor. Ferdinand

Final comment. The language they use is of "material" and "non-material" matters in planning considerations. The dividing line is often not where people think it ought to be, which can sometimes cause "not our problem - that is a civil legal matter" responses from the LPA making people get cross. OTOH they may intervene eventually if a person is willing to be persistent, or if an MP gets involved. Sometimes! Bets of luck. Ferdinand

I'm going to apply a slightly different emphasis to Jeremy, in that there are in practice nuances and grey areas. For example Planning Policy is full of words like "appropriate" and "proportionate" and "expedient" and "discretionary", all of which are judgement calls, and areas of ignorance where eg one LPA may not know of a precedent set in a Court relating to a case in a different area. This can all be mitigated or changed if you know your stuff, which is why Planning Consultants can make a living - their job is to influence the judgement calls made in the direction of their client, and to make sure that the policies that support the client's view are prominent in the mind of the decision maker. They are also not *bound* to enforce against violations of policy. From the National Planning Policy Framework: If a Local Planning Authority (or people within it) take a stance at one edge of a grey area in one case, and the other in another, then the effect can be quite different. And people in the LPA may eercise their discretion in different ways depending on whether the member of the public has been a PITA or a Saint. Also, local planning decisions do not form a binding precedent - because policies change and people making the decisions change. An example here is that they used to permit windows in the steep roofs of Oast Houses in Kent - no longer allowed, but the existing ones have stayed. And once something has existed for 4 years it becomes immune to planning enforcement. The farmer kept his house inside his haystack for years, but he was able to be enforced in iirc because it was a deliberate deception to hide it rather than it having simply been there for 4 years. Had it existed openly, the outcome may have been different. And having a local councillor on board makes a difference since they have influence inside the LPA. If somebody has built a wall across your drive or a window looking into your bedroom, they may make them knock the wall down or put fixed frosted glass in the window, but they may not make them demolish an extension in the latter case. It is for the LPA to set the action to be taken. Ferdinand

Is there a rule of thumb as to the weight of a digger itself, related to the "1 ton", "1.5 ton", "3 ton" etc class it is in? If I am planning a digger, and want to be able to tow it, how much of my towing weight will it account for? eg a Kubota KLX41-3V is a "1.5 ton" digger which quotes approx 1600kg as an "operating weight" excluding operator, which is presumably how much it will add to my trailer. https://www.kubota.com/product/kx41/pdf/kx41_spec.pdf Clearly extra buckets, muddy tracks etc add weight (or are they included), but I'm after a little more clarity and a little less fog. Thanks Ferdinand

There is not really enough information here to comment in detail. eg is he self-building a house and has oversized it, or has he just self-built the porch, is it finished etc. It will now follow the normal planning procedure, which I think means you and others will be able to object. However, unless there is a *major* impact, I would think that it would get through, since Councils are reluctant to make people demolish finished projects unless eg there is a safety issue, or someone is seriously taking the p and driving a coach and horses through policy (eg that haystack castle) which may cause the Council to feel slighted, or has specifically annoyed a key person in the Council who may then motivated by personal issues / get a bee in their bonnet. If you are materially affected you could take civil legal action, which is likely to be an expensive lottery, but may win you compensation for wrongs. Maybe. Potentially you could presumably go for an Injunction to have it removed, but that would in my view require at least a severe and material personal impact such as causing a clear hazard. The Gardenlaw Forums may have also have experience in this particular area. Ferdinand

Hmmm. One market for such a house with lots of bedrooms at a not very expensive price would be professional foster parents .. have you tried a personal ad in adoption magazines etc? Ferdinand

That surely is the one thread wrong in the Persian rug equivalent.

I can confirm that a well done fibreglass roof can be expected to last 35 years or more. My father did various roof gullies and valleys from the late 1970s in our mainly 17c house. The most common failure modes would be due to mechanical stress ie standing on joints, edges not sealed down properly giving water seepage, or potentially deterioration of the resin in sunlight over decades. Ferdinand

Somewhere under the mesh I would put a 2x2 stack of breezeblocks so that there is somewhere on your mesh where you can stand to have a good look or lift without leaning from the edge, without having to dismantle and drain first. Make it tall enough to stand proud of the water level. Perhaps both sides so two people can lift the slab easily. Can you do a complementary bird feeder support with fat balls, Niger seeds etc to be close by that you could see from your window? Ferdinand

I think that 45-50 sqft is the recommended minimum surface area for a pool which will self-maintain (eg stay slime free) which is 3-4 times your size ignoring the island in the middle. That number is from The Garden Expert by DG Hessayon. SO I wonder if a non-pond water feature would be more appropriate and less time consuming? That could be a fountain onto rocks, possible incorporating a bird bath, or something more plant-based. Here I would like to make a bird fountain from two or three defunct satellite dishes but have not got round to it yet. My mischevious side wants to see a JSH garden gnome wielding some sort of borehole management crowbar or kitchen plunger, but that won't happen in an oasis of good taste. Ferdinand

And such a system could get a FiT subsidy of about £30 ukp for the 360kwh you could generate each day. Which is double the FiT for solar, so if you used your solar to pump the water up with an efficiency of more than 50% or so ... You could potentially just about break even rather than fleecing yourself if you ignore the capital cost. Ferdinand aka Sisyphus.

Hmm. Quickly calculations suggest that emptying an Olympic swimming pool 3m deep with a head of 10m over a 24 hour period will generate a continuous 15kw, assuming an 85% end to end efficiency on the water to electricity generating system. So over a week it will be 2kw if it is emptied over the 7 days. Big lake required. But not impossibly big if you own the landscape. So I need a very big lake and a fishing business or landing facility for seaplanes. Suspect I would require more than a minidigger. Ferdinand

What are the economics and compromises of having your own pumped storage system? Say I have 50m fall on my land, what Potential Energy can I store in how big a pair of reservoirs, and what sort of turbine do I need to get the power out? And will they make me turn it off if newts move in ? Ferdinand

* That Island one does not apply to Skye because there is a bridge.

I see that people on islands under 2300 sq km are exempt from EU driver hours regs, and the required tachometers. As are Local Authority vehicles - why? https://www.gov.uk/guidance/drivers-hours-goods-vehicles/1-eu-and-aetr-rules-on-drivers-hours