NMA, a word too many?

[epsilonGreedy]

I am submitting my own NMA using a diagram prepared by my architectural technician and I am wondering how much emotive prose to attach with the application to justify the essential amendment details.

 

The local architect with a reputation for winning planning applications with his heritage designs on rural plots, writes flowery emotive prose that describes the vision behind his creation. For example his most recent application refers to a stone clad tower that creates an air of mystery suggesting an historical association with nearby castle ruins. Could a similar approach backfire in the case of an NMA? 

[PeterW]

Depends on the NMA. 

 

I wrote one to add a chimney to a build and add additional Velux windows. The words were along the lines of - Chimney, as per surrounding properties, external brickwork to match. Velux windows to increase natural light in the property and reduce use of artificial lights. 

 

Worked as they got them through without a problem. 

[ToughButterCup]

32 minutes ago, epsilonGreedy said:

[...]

I am wondering how much emotive prose to attach with the application to justify the essential amendment details.

[...]

 

Use your own written style. Always.  

 

32 minutes ago, epsilonGreedy said:

[...]

writes flowery emotive prose that describes the vision behind his creation.

[...]

 

Cant  you see the reader's eyes rolling ? In the context of  a simple NMA application,  who gives a stuff about the vision thing ?

[epsilonGreedy]

10 minutes ago, AnonymousBosch said:

Cant  you see the reader's eyes rolling ? In the context of  a simple NMA application,  who gives a stuff about the vision thing ?

 

 

The said architect writes a vision document with his full planning applications which the planning officer dutifully uploads as a separate items online. The last one took 15 minutes to read. The justification prose supporting my NMA application is half a page.

 

16 minutes ago, AnonymousBosch said:

Use your own written style. Always.  

 

 

So flowery and emotive it is ?

[epsilonGreedy]

33 minutes ago, PeterW said:

Depends on the NMA. 

 

I wrote one to add a chimney to a build and add additional Velux windows. The words were along the lines of - Chimney, as per surrounding properties, external brickwork to match. Velux windows to increase natural light in the property and reduce use of artificial lights. 

 

 

My application includes similar succinct change descriptions, following this I have a separate heading titled "Rationale" with the prose.

 

Think I will visit the manned duty desk at the planning office for some pre application advice and interpret the facial expression as my application is reviewed.

[SteamyTea]

On 29/09/2019 at 12:56, epsilonGreedy said:

writes flowery emotive prose that describes the vision behind his creation.

Isn't that just the kind of shit that unimaginative, but pretentious, clients are impressed with, while making everyone else put two fingers down their own throats.

Edited September 30, 2019 by SteamyTea

[epsilonGreedy]

4 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

Isn't that just the kind of shit that unimaginative, but pretentious, clients are impressed with, while making the everyone else put two fingers down their own throats.

 

 

Since becoming a self builder I have discovered that the world of architecture and planning is quaint and old fashioned.

[Tennentslager]

@epsilonGreedy post it here and we can critique it for you?

[epsilonGreedy]

6 minutes ago, Tennentslager said:

@epsilonGreedy post it here and we can critique it for you?

 

 

I will once an approval is in the bag for your collective amusement.

[LA3222]

On 29/09/2019 at 15:40, epsilonGreedy said:

 

I will once an approval is in the bag for your collective amusement.

You're in East Lindsey ain't you Jonathon? I may have to have a butcher's on the website?

 

On another note, you been getting much done with the weather as it is? I was stuck indoors this weekend!

 

I'll have to come have a look at what you been doing.

[epsilonGreedy]

15 hours ago, LA3222 said:

On another note, you been getting much done with the weather as it is? I was stuck indoors this weekend!

 

 

Nothing much happening beyond clearing leaves out of the static caravan guttering. Think I  have laid 20 blocks since the rain arrived.

 

Looking at a weather station in our part of the world, by the end of today we are heading for 3.5" of rain since it turned really wet on the 24th.

 

https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/ILINSIBS3/table/2019-09-1/2019-09-1/monthly?partnerId=undefined

 

[epsilonGreedy]

Update: Flowery emotive prose is ok.

 

I visited the planning office and got some good advice. The duty planning officer at the public walk-in desk was helpful, his main interest was not to assess the merits of the NMA details but to advise on whether my changes fell within the scope of an NMA. Because I am in a conservation area he said that if my garage had direct frontage to the public road it would require a full application but in my case an NMA is ok because the view from a public road is partially obscured across the back garden of another property.

 

He advised that I drop the brick bond change from the NMA because it is subject to another approved condition and that change requires a different form.

 

As to flowery prose presented as an addendum to the NMA, he said why no, no harm. His view is planning is all about the art of persuasion and anything that helps explain motive or the applicant's justification will help the planning officers or other bodies such as a parish council.  

[epsilonGreedy]

On 29/09/2019 at 15:34, Tennentslager said:

@epsilonGreedy post it here and we can critique it for you?

 

 

After a year delay I finally got around to the submission, the flowery planning application prose won the day.

 

For your amusement...

 

Quote

 

The original approved application for the 4 homes xxxxx specified a double garage at each property with two sets of double doors. The 4-house scheme was designed to avoid a mini executive housing estate look within the village and this was largely achieved. However 4 architecturally repetitive double garages with the same double vehicle entrances and door detail undermined the vision somewhat. Multiple properties within the village include a barn like structure for covered vehicle parking. These structures variously feature wood cladding or an oak frame entrance or other non facing brick finish that suggest an earlier agricultural function. The applicant claims the NMA revisions submitted here will help reinforce the established historical street scene of xxxxx which features diverse outbuilding shape, style and material finish. The garage position .... does not have direct frontage to a public road or footpath. Pedestrian and vehicle traffic passing along xxxx will have a partly obscured view of the proposed cart-barn facade depending on seasonal foliage, across the back garden of xxxxxx. This obscured view through foliage to a cart-barn type structure should enhance the outbuilding mystery of the village. The applicant further claims that one generous parking space within the barn section of the garage should encourage more regular garaging of a vehicle than could be expected with the previously approved garage that offered two minimal car spaces each accessed through a tight door aperture. xxxxx benefits from a large driveway within its curtilage having space for 5+ parked cars and a turning area, hence the theoretical reduction of garage capacity will not adversely affect vehicle access to the property.