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Hi, I now have a design for the screen structure (see image below) that I want to build in the corner of the garden. I've been trying to find the planning rules for this type of structure but cannot find any. Can someone point me in the right direction please? I have found lots of different bits of info regarding max height etc but nothing definitive from planning portal website. If someone could provide a link to the definitive info that would be great. Many thanks, Ed

We have a few - to put it politely - weapons-grade level curtain twitchers near us. Now, granted, our dwelling house is a loooong way from them, but that doesn't stop them from peering in to our gardens and wider plot, probably keeping a log of everyone who's coming and going, etc etc We already have evergreen hedges growing but these are going to take a long time to deliver the right result, and they're also (arguably) close enough to the border fence (owned by us) to be restricted by the 2m law. The good news is that with some judicious planting further in to the plot/garden, we could block any wider view in to it. However any serious growth is going to take years, so what alternatives are there to the following? bamboo in planters bamboo in the ground (but there are water pipes and potential electric cables nearby, albeit no buildings/structures) AN other plant which grows crazy quick and ideally is not massively invasive AN other very large/pre-grown tree that can be bought and planted and will still take and not die Before anyone mentions Leylandii we have already planted a lot of them along the border but they lack width (which we need to block the neighbouring windows), and they grow quick but not fast enough. Not being knowledgeable at all on a horticultural level it would be great if anyone has suggestions.

Hello Everyone! I am in the process of renovating my balcony. I live in a row of 4 terraced houses all houses with matching balconies. The problem I have is that there is a real lack of privacy, we only have a small partition between us and If anyone of us are on the balcony it is impossible to relax. I have tried speaking to the neighbours to fix the issue but they are reluctant to cooperate as they don’t like change. Their main concern is the view being effected even though the view is across our balcony. My question to everyone is how high of a partition can I legally erect without permission? I know at ground level the height is 2m but as it’s up on a balcony I can’t find any information. it’s something we’d really like to sort as we feel uncomfortable sitting out there. any help would be amazing and greatly appreciated :)

In this thread: I mentioned a problem that has just arisen, because the neighbour over the other side of the lane from us has cut down a 30ft high Leylandii hedge, removing a great deal of privacy from the front of our house. At first, I was concerned with the problem of our windows at the front being directly opposite their bedroom windows, but now that the whole hedge is down, it's clear that our garden as well as the front of the house is now overlooked, and we will need to put some form of privacy screen or fence in place. We were planning to fit a low fence along the edge of the lawn, on top of the wall shown in this photo: However, the very tall hedge (at the extreme right in the above photo) has now been cut down so that it is at the level of the roof of my car, and the whole first floor of the house that is behind that hedge now looks directly at our house and garden. As I mentioned in the other thread, we have two fences already, the 800mm high post and rail fence that runs alongside the path at the right side of the drive in the above photo, plus another 1.2m high post and rail fence at the boundary, which is about 1.5m below the drive and between 1.5m and 2.5m away from the fence that is visible above. My question is really about planning law, and what constitutes a fence. We are in an AONB, so even a 2m fence, that would normally be OK as PD, would require planning permission. To provide any privacy at all, given the relative levels, would need a fence that's around 2.5m high, if it were placed along the line of the visible fence in the photo. Eventually, the hedging plants that we've planted behind the lower fence (a mic of hawthorn, blackthorn, field maple, hazel and wild rose) will grow to a height to provide some screening, but that will take several years. I've been working through several ideas, and have read on a few sites that something like a trellis is deemed to be "decorative", rather than a fence, as such. One option that may work for us is to bolt some tall posts to the existing fence posts and then fit a tall trellis of screen above the post and rail fence. If the screen were fixed to the outer face of the posts, that nearest the lane, I could put some decent soil/compost behind the retaining timber at the base of the fence, and plant some climbers up the trellis/screen, probably to a height of around 2.5m above the drive level. I think this could look more attractive than a plain fence, but my real concern is whether such a plant support would need planning permission. Our neighbour to the East (behind the house in the above photo) has a vegetable garden adjacent to the lane, and that has a fruit cage, plus bean sticks etc, that are taller than the 2m allowed for a fence, so I'm guessing that a plant support screen might be considered in the same way under planning rules. Unfortunately, I can't ask the planners without paying them £90, as they no longer speak to the public, so I'm hoping that the collective knowledge here may know the answer!