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

Personally I'm just going for an "eyes" meme. I think RAs is quite cool relly - it has that looking over the shoulder surveying the Villa he has just bought on a headland in St Kitts feeling. Or possibly Apres-Ski. Gollum is presumably a protected species for whom you have to build an underground lake, stocked with fish and orcses. F

You've done it now, @TheMitchells He dyes it grey so you aren't intimidated by his still looking about 23. The sunglasses are to protect the him from the dazzling visage in the mirror. (For the record, I am not foolish enough to put my photo in my avatar. The current pic is what Google means by "bedroom eyes" - apparently. Ferdinand

WHy not have a day at Diggerland first to try out different sizes, if you can?

Young people these days don't know they are born... I wonder if we will get regulations that can be understood without spending £500 on a specialist solicitor after BREXIT? https://www.fginsight.com/vip/vip/negotiating-the-load-towing-legislative-minefield070111-960 Ferdinand (*) Have to admit that made me think of a certain incident allegedly involving Gillian Taylforth, her alleged fiance, and an alleged Range Rover.

Are you sure there is only enoug material for one checklist on this topic? What about marriage risks, likelihood of allotment and manhole cover collection being neglected etc?

Trailer without tipper plus small minidigger for unloading?

Therefore EU Rules apply if it is over 3.5T Gross Train Mass, and I need a tachograph .. I think. Do I need one if self-employed?

You can run over newts and Planners with it. 3 tonne is sensible, but check the read and max depth of hole you need.

I honestly don't know much about this yet, But my building site may have finally sold, so I expect to be doing some more rentals and renovations with the proceeds, and Mr Osborne's tax changes have made a Limited Company a likely option. It is also now in a company, so I can control the tax more by jkeeping the money there (maybe). If my Gross Train Mass is above 3,5T and I am doing it for a limited company, I think that tachos apply. Given a decent towing vehicle is towards 2000kg and a trailer may weigh 750kg itself, I can see me going over 3.5T even with 40 bags of sand (or a single big bag) or decent loose load of gravel. Add in to that that all the towing laws are a confusing pig's breakfast, and the propensity to enforce on the basis of the theoretical rather than what you are actually doing, and I can see that it would be sensible to have one :-) . Though if I went for the Qashqai first time round, that may keep me under 3500 kg just. Ferdinand

I concur with the No Tax philosophy, and I always had a hankering for a Bristol (growing up in an NSU RO80 instills a love of engineering and a hatred of unreliability) - but the 14 mpg always seemed daunting. When I lived in Chiswick in about 2002 I went to see their only dealership in Kensington one morning with an imaginary 30k to spend and had a great chat with Tony Crook who built up the car company after the war, and was about 82 but still in the showroom. My contention is that we have a new batch of millions of essentially tax-free-for-their-lifetime cars which have been in bands A, B and C over the last few years, and which will give anyone sensible tax-free motoring for the next 15 years, given the lifetime of modern cars. There are some interesting options that I am only digging into slowly. eg Nissan Qashqai 1.6 dCi Acenta Premium 4wd is 130 bhp and a lot of torque, while having a towing weight of 1800kg, and a road tax of £110 only. It was also What Car Tow car of the Year 2014. And it does a real world 48-50mpg in daily use. At a higher road tax level I like as I said the Audi Allroad which I can probably buy at 100k miles and realistically expect a further 7-8 years service. The homework continues. Ferdinand

The best hybrids I know for towing are the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV which is I think 1500kg, and the existing Lexus RX 450 h and predecessors which have limits around 2000kg, but they are not Plug-ins. I am told the Lexus can deliver a genuine 40mpg. A neighbour had one but said the performance wasn't towering enough; he hankered after an Overfinch Range Rover :-) . Both may be good secondhand buys; Lexi because they last though are reported as being as engaging as a fridge, and have on demand 4wd not permanent, and Outlander PHEVs are dipping below 25k now, while being more practical than glamorous. I'm ignoring the 50k new Volvos and BMWs and Audis as being beyind satire pricewise at present. But I do like the look of Audi A6 Allroads (except for the silly sloping back window). Ferdinand