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UK Council asking to remove fence what are my rights


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Hi,

 

I am new.

I have recently received a letter from the council advising me that a neighbour complained about my fence being to high.

 

I am just wondering if I can still apply for a planning permission, even if I was advised that my application will be rejected.

The reason for erecting the fence was my house being vandalised (smashed window) on 3 occassions in 1 day. (bricks were thrown at my front window, shattering the large window) No other houses had been targeted. I contacted the police about it as well.

 

I will appreciate all advice.

Thank you,

Anna

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Hi,

 

I am new.

I have recently received a letter from the council advising me that a neighbour complained about my fence being to high.

 

I am just wondering if I can still apply for a planning permission, even if I was advised that my application will be rejected.

The reason for erecting the fence was my house being vandalised (smashed window) on 3 occassions in 1 day. (bricks were thrown at my front window, shattering the large window) No other houses had been targeted. I contacted the police about it as well.

 

I will appreciate all advice.

Thank you,

Anna

 

Edited by Anna12
decided to remove file
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Your only option is to apply for retrospective pp

All not lost though a friend of our built a very large wall around his property and was allowed to keep it with a couple of minor adjustments

That was Two years ago

Not far from you at Didsbury 

May even be the same Counsul as yours 

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Can you clarify, perhaps with a photograph where the fence is?

 

It used to be that any fence between the principle elevation and the highway needed planning.  Now the wording is "adjacent"

 

If it is right next to the road then I am afraid it is adjacent and needs planning.  But there have been cases where a fence 1 metre back from the highway does not need planning.  the inspector in that case said he could not touch the fence while standing on the highway so it was not "adjacent"

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"The council is satisfied that whilst your address is XXXX the actual principle {main} elevation is to the YYY Road" 

The house is built back to front....Although the front of the house is not on the main street, the letter box is at the back of the house where there is "a highway used by vehicular traffic."

The council wroe:

" I have viewed the fence in question and I am satisfied that it is development for which planning permission is required. this is due to the whole fence being adjacent to a highway and it exceeds 1 metre in height".

 

"Whilst you are at liberty to make a retrospective planning application for the retention of the fence I must inform you that any such application will be recommended for refusal. This is due to streets in this area being open plan with any boundaries consisting of low planning or low fences"

"The council requires you to reduce height of the fence so that no part of it exceeds 1m in height"

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Yes I hate these "back to front" estates. but if your back garden fronts onto a road, the developers usually put a 2M high fence and planning for that is included?

 

Is it like my first house, where the builders put the fence was not on my boundary, there was another 5 feet of garden on the other side of the fence.  I collectively with 3 other neighbours got planning to move the fence right up to our boundaries and it was passed without issue so we all gained another 5 feet of garden (significant when the garden was only 30 feet long to start with)

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After you have decided what you want to achieve, then you may get a better hearing by getting your local councillor involved using the threat to your security and (if it is true) woman living alone angles.

 

One option is a fence set slightly back from the pavement with a flower border on the outside, or a lower fence with a taller hedge behind it.

 

But agree that it is a difficult one.

Edited by Ferdinand
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No, it is back to front...and there is a fence at the "front" of the property. There used to be bushes, probably over 2m high at my "back " of the property, they were taking half of the garden...so I removed them...and then soon after my window bas badly smashed with bricks on 3 occassions (the same day). This is why I put fence.

 

I just wanted my fence asap back then for my safety...without thinking about anybody complaining and if I need planning permission.

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Got it wrong...at the time when there were bushes left (only at the front of the house), not on the sides....the house was vandalised......with the bushed helping to hide but allowing to throw bricks....

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You can wait until nearly the deadline and make a retrospective planning application. That will delay any enforcement. It may take a month or two to be determined if they are very busy. You then have 6 months in which to submit an appeal and that also delays enforcement. Appeals can take 6 months to be heard but I note the government has stopped publishing estimates of timescales due to the virus so could be longer. In short if you can afford the cost of planning applications and appeals you can delay things for perhaps a year and may then be given 6 months to remove it if you lose.

 

As to the chances of winning I suspect it's remote because of what they say in the letter about the area generally having low fences.

 

I think you will have to investigate trees or hedges again. Google for tall but narrow plants...

 

https://gardentabs.com/tall-narrow-shrubs-for-screening/

 

I'm not sure if a trellis like support structure for training trees along like they do in France counts as a fence? I know a regular trellis does but what about poles and wires?

 

Another possibility might be laminated glass? Security cameras or dummy cameras.

 

 

 

Edited by Temp
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If you go down the route of planning, appeal etc that gives your plants/trees about 2 years to get established inside the fence. I grew a dense hedge at a previous house but put chainlink fencing in first and the hedge grew through it, impossible to get through and you could not see it (we had a dog).

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