Discharge of Planning Conditions

[Bitpipe]

Thought I'd share my experience of this as it's often overlooked in the fight to get planning in the first place.

We had a total of 14 conditions to discharge with five pre-commencement conditions, an archeology condition and ground contamination report (we have a basement which likely triggered these last two).

The architect practice wanted £15k to work on these along with the Building Control submission so at this point we parted company and I tool them on myself.

Quite a few required statements on how we would meet various local policies (sustainable design, lifetime homes) so these were easy enough to do - just obtaining the relevant policy online and replying point by point.

We had the usual materials approval and our samples had to be dropped off - I only handed in a roofing slate (a freebie from the local BM) and a render sample. We also had to specify planting (quick google on hedge types) and confirm that we'd comply with the meagre rainwater collection requirements, parking requirements and balcony glass obscurity (these are pre-occupation conditions). We had to produce a site traffic plan, which was pretty easy, and acknowledge a few other restrictions.

The longest lead item was the contamination report as we were doing that as part of our ground investigation survey, which itself was a bit of a saga, requiring two visits. We probably could have got away with something cheaper but we did get a very comprehensive report than firmly stated that there were no issues.

Then came the big surprise - the amount of time it took to discharge them, a function of our overworked planning team. As there is a fixed fee per submission, not condition, I did them all in one shot and then sat back. Deadlines came and went with very little communication and then the 8 week deadline was exceeded.

I emailed the planners to ask what was going on, by this stage you can leverage the planning act to get a default discharge but I held back as I didn't want to antagonise them.

When 12 weeks was passed I was less patient and wrote a stiff email, quoting the legislation and asking for a refund of my fee. Low and behold, all conditions were discharged and we were able to start work - I really doubt if they read half of what we submitted.

[Mikey_1980]

Discharging conditions really is a minefield we had a similar set to you minus the Archeology, everything bar the soil contamination was approved within a week, bar the contamination they rejected our desk based report, argued for ages around what they wanted, in the end I go the EH officer to come to site, detailed exactly what he wanted us to produce for him which was 9 samples from locations he chose, when we did the sampling I made him come out and witness it all and then emailed the reports directly to him and planning and it still took two weeks for him to say ok even though it was clear there was no contamination.

Edited May 24, 2016 by Mikey_1980

[ProDave]

What is really strange is that in Scotland, I discharged all my conditions by simple emails to the planning officer who had dealt with the application, reply rarely a day later, no cost invoved, and at the end I got an email followed up by a letter in the post saying all conditions are discharged and you may commence building.

[Bitpipe]

We needed a contamination report anyway to ensure that the spoil was inert for muck-away (and get the lowest rate) so the report was probably way more detailed than they required.

Archeology was not that hard as all was needed was the agreed investigation scheme (watching brief) which is pretty boiler plate.

[Ferdinand]

@Bitpipe

> balcony glass obscurity

That's interesting.

Is that the glass in the balcony balustrade to be obscure or something else?

I'm sitting here thinking of delicate blossom neighbours who would have their public decency outraged by your nobbly knees if you went on your balcony in the nud.

Tell me it isn't so. Please.

Ferdinand

[Bitpipe]

There are two L shaped balconies, one for main and one for guest beds. Neighbours are to each side so we have full height glazing panel on the exterior side of each balcony and the condition says it must be obscure. The regular height glazing to the front part that overlooks the garden is clear.

Funnily enough, the old '50s house did not sit square on the plot and was turned about 15^o to the south, probably to maximise solar gain. Down side of this was that the view from our old bedroom was directly into the neighbour's garden and not down our own 200'+ garden!

So when we rebuilt, we made sure the house sat in the centre of the plot and faced straight down the garden. However, the neighbour to our left has his house to the same orientation to ours so can see into our garden. He texted me a few pics a while back complaining that the site was very messy and it was spoiling his bedroom window view 

Edited May 25, 2016 by Bitpipe

[Alex C]

I was very lucky having only 2 conditions. The pre commencement was for exterior samples and the other was to show 10% renewables. The planning officer told me to email them if there was no response by 6 weeks, demanding a response within 14 days. If there was no response by 8 weeks it would be deemed to be approved. I was led to believe this was national policy, but it could well be a local one.

[Calvinmiddle]

12 hours ago, Bitpipe said:

 He texted me a few pics a while back complaining that the site was very messy and it was spoiling his bedroom window view 

Hope you apologised and told him you would be planting a leylandii hedge at that part of your boundary right away so he didn't have to look at you garden anymore 

Edited May 26, 2016 by Calvinmiddle
Typo

[Bitpipe]

It wasn't even that messy, few piles of scrap wood and EPS. By chance, the groundworkers arrived the next day to finish some drainage works so cleared the area anyway and graded the ground with a machine. 

If I didn't hate leylandi so much I would seriously consider that

[jack]

13 hours ago, Bitpipe said:

He texted me a few pics a while back complaining that the site was very messy and it was spoiling his bedroom window view 

Some people really are wankpuffins.

[Calvinmiddle]

I would invest a couple of hundred on a mature tree.  I got some from Majestic Trees, something like Beech or Hornbeam that will hold their leaves over winter, I have Hornbeam but think the Beech is better for leaf retention 

[ToughButterCup]

Thanks for this topic Hugh (again) . I'm foaming at the mouth about our EPS licence delay - almost everything else has been sorted out . But the LPA has still to give us their decision on a few things - and I'd forgotten about default discharge. We must be well over the time limit now. 

Thanks again. Made my day!

Ian