Network rail, and the air shaft...

[matstand]

Hello I was wondering if anyone has any experience with Network Rails asset protection team?

 

I have a house with a large garden, too large for me to cope with if I am honest. I am pretty certain that I'd get planning permission to self build on one half the garden, so i could sell the original house and be mortgage free.

 

The problem I have. is Network Rail. A significant railway tunnel runs 150m under my garden, which isnt a directly a problem. But there is 150 year old airshaft for the tunnel adjacent to my garden, air is forced through the tunnel as trains piston through it.  My town has 15 such airvents, and many of them have buildings erected adjacent to them, in all cases the buildings were erected after the tunnels, but they were all done decades ago under different planning/building rules. I

 

The network Rail asset protection team, have stated that they will object to any building that is proposed within 15m of the tunnel, which makes building a non starter. I've pointed out how this is inconsistent with plenty of properties, but they are saying "our engineer has guidance that you need to be 15 m away from the tunnel"  This rule seems arbitrary and made up. as in one case there is a building just 3 m away from the tunnel.  and within 5m of the tunnel is a significant road that gts busses, dustcarts and lorries thundering up and down.

 

Can anyone suggest a route to challenging Network Rail on this point? 

 

There is a complexity with the deeds of my property, that ensures that I really need Network Rail to be willing participants, I probably couldn't proceed if I forced planning permission through. any thoughts welcome, I am loath to spend professional fees on planning consultants/engineers without this issue being dealt with.

 

[joe90]

I think the big problem is Network Rail will have deep pockets and legal teams in place, you could always apply anyway as a punt, do it yourself (I did my own planning appeal and although not easy it was not rocket science, easier than planning and i won!!,). You might have to employ a good SE to make your point and try and find planning applications to quote regarding other buildings closer than they say are permissible.

[ToughButterCup]

1 hour ago, matstand said:

...

Can anyone suggest a route to challenging Network Rail on this point? 

...

 

Yes.

First, request a certified copy of the " guidance". I think there's at least some chance there is no technically valid guidance ( hence '...certified copy....' so they can't later claim 'Oh that was sent in error' )

 

If there is some guidance, ask them - politely at first - to link to or send you the evidence base on which that decision (in this case minimum 15m  build separation) was taken.  

Get them to send their answer to a Structural Engineer working for you. Thats important - because they will be tempted to consider you as a nuisance and that even if they gave you chapter and verse, you wouldn't understand the reply.

 

If, as is likely, they stone wall, submit an FOI request for the information. 

 

If you get this far, then ask when that decision ( 15 meters separation ) was taken, and when it was last reviewed, and by whom and what qualifications did the reviewer have?

 

While you are doing this, 

• List each airshaft (photo - GPS location, description)
• Gather evidence of the distance of all the buildings next to the airshafts
• Request a list of all the repairs to the airshafts that were necessitated  as a result of building in the proximity of airshafts, and the dates of repair

You now have a databse of evidence with which to challenge this (in my opinion) probably ludicrous 15 meter rule.

 

Post here when you've got that done. 

Good luck

 

I'm nosey as Hell. Where is this (GPS or Google map or other geo-reference..... please?)

Ian

[matstand]

Thanks Ian

 

That is really helpful advice.

 

This is in sevenoaks, kent. The London to Hastings train line goes under the garden. Here is a link to one of the airshafts Airshaft ( not "mine").

 

If you Google maps tn13 1pb you can see the shaft, and os maps has the tunnel line marked and all the airshafts.

 

I will let you know how I get on.

 

 

 

 

[matstand]

and a bit more detail. 

 

network rail asset protection have said the  following

NR Structures and they have provided the drawing below which shows the area of influence for the ventilation shaft (blue circle).  As you can see this covers the majority of your plot and this is why your request has been rejected at the technical clearance stage.  I understand that this will be disappointing but this is the final decision from NR regarding consent to build.

 

which is clearly nonsense as 15 m from the tunnel, according to their supplied map. actually covers the corners of two properties. one build 40 years ago and one build 100 years ago.