ToughButterCup Posted November 10, 2017 Share Posted November 10, 2017 With friends like the good folk from my DNO, who needs enemies? I'm already persona non grata with the neighbours. This sign refers to work on our electricity connection which needs a trench dug across our lane: all of 4 meters at its widest. The work will be done on the 20th, and finished on that day too: so tells me the man who is low enough in the pecking order to really matter. Might be an idea to visit a different pub tonight - lets try one in Barrow in Furness - that'll be far enough away - inaccessible too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lesgrandepotato Posted November 10, 2017 Share Posted November 10, 2017 Oh dear! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted November 10, 2017 Share Posted November 10, 2017 I suspect it is a quirk of how road closure orders work. You can't apply to close it for one unspecified day within next month, so faced with that inflexibility, they apply to close it for the whole month knowing it will be closed only 1 day. There is a small development in the town here with a "road closed for 6 months" sign. I think I have counted 2 days closure so far. So your sign is as close as they are able to say, when they mean "will be closed for 1 day, some time in the next 25 days" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted November 10, 2017 Share Posted November 10, 2017 (edited) We had to dig across two lanes of about the same width as that, one trench to put the relocated underground power cable to our neighbour in (it used to go overhead from the old pole on our plot) and another across the other lane to put our treatment plant outlet across to the stream. I was asked were asked whether we needed to close the road when I applied for the licence from the local authority, and replied that we'd put steel plates down so vehicles could still pass. They were happy with that, so there was no road closure order needed. IIRC, had we had to close the road there would have been a very hefty additional fee............ Edited November 10, 2017 by JSHarris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted November 10, 2017 Share Posted November 10, 2017 Use it to your advantage. Say you got them to work harder and told them they can do it in a day. Then make sure your neighbour knows it is you that sorted it out. Brownie points for you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daiking Posted November 10, 2017 Share Posted November 10, 2017 (edited) How have you upset the neighbours? its not like you crashed into their car a month before moving in did you? Edited November 10, 2017 by daiking Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToughButterCup Posted November 10, 2017 Author Share Posted November 10, 2017 59 minutes ago, daiking said: How have you upset the neighbours? I breathe... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Declan52 Posted November 10, 2017 Share Posted November 10, 2017 Don't forget to have a length of sewer pipe handy that might just fall into the trench for a future crossing and a £20 note/ 12 pack of beer for the guy doing the job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lesgrandepotato Posted November 10, 2017 Share Posted November 10, 2017 9 minutes ago, recoveringacademic said: I breathe... You can do better than this. We got a lorry stuck in a tree. All because the Telford delivery not told us the thermal store was 100kg. So we dared him to get as close as possible. Once it was in the tree it turned out the store was a really easy lift. :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted November 10, 2017 Share Posted November 10, 2017 1 hour ago, JSHarris said: We had to dig across two lanes of about the same width as that, one trench to put the relocated underground power cable to our neighbour in (it used to go overhead from the old pole on our plot) and another across the other lane to put our treatment plant outlet across to the stream. I was asked were asked whether we needed to close the road when I applied for the licence from the local authority, and replied that we'd put steel plates down so vehicles could still pass. They were happy with that, so there was no road closure order needed. IIRC, had we had to close the road there would have been a very hefty additional fee............ You would still have needed a road opening permit though. We found it was cheapest to get Scottish Water to make the road crossing, the utilities have a permanent road opening permit, any private contractor would have had to apply for and pay for one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToughButterCup Posted November 10, 2017 Author Share Posted November 10, 2017 24 minutes ago, Lesgrandepotato said: [...] We got a lorry stuck in a tree. All because the Telford delivery not told us the thermal store was 100kg. So we dared him to get as close as possible. [...] Ya could've rolled it down the hill into your front door! Where's yer sense of adventure man? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToughButterCup Posted November 10, 2017 Author Share Posted November 10, 2017 4 minutes ago, ProDave said: [...] any private contractor would have had to apply for and pay for one. And that's what we found. One way or another (DIY or Utility company) , the cost is (was) painful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted November 10, 2017 Share Posted November 10, 2017 IIRC, we paid around £125 for a permit to dig across the road, without closing it. Had we needed to close it then I think the cost was going to be around £1000. Our ground works guy was approved to do the work and did both trenches in less than a day, as the council sent an inspector around to check that the road surface was up to the required standard at around 4pm. Both lanes were single track, and all I said to the council (on the advice of our ground works chap) was that we would have a steel plate standing by, and should a vehicle want to cross we'd just drop the plate over and get the digger out of the way, with a minimal delay to traffic. Worked a treat, and we got away without having to close the road officially. The daft thing is that when we were removing the best part of 1000 tonnes of waste soil etc from the site, we were closing the lane completely for around 30 minutes, every time we loaded an 18 tonne truck (and there were lots of those, almost running in relays). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted November 10, 2017 Share Posted November 10, 2017 32 minutes ago, JSHarris said: IIRC, we paid around £125 for a permit to dig across the road, without closing it. Had we needed to close it then I think the cost was going to be around £1000. Interesting how it varies from one council to another. It would have been north of £300 here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeSharp01 Posted November 10, 2017 Share Posted November 10, 2017 (edited) They want north of £1k in Kent to shut a footpath for a week so I can resurface it! (Yes I said I would resurface it....) Edited November 10, 2017 by MikeSharp01 Context wrong not actually... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triassic Posted November 10, 2017 Share Posted November 10, 2017 I’m annoying our neighbours with two weeks (and counting) of peckering, I’ve got lots of rock to shift for our basement. You can’t beat the sound of a pecker at 7:30 in a morning. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferdinand Posted November 10, 2017 Share Posted November 10, 2017 8 hours ago, recoveringacademic said: With friends like the good folk from my DNO, who needs enemies? I'm already persona non grata with the neighbours. This sign refers to work on our electricity connection which needs a trench dug across our lane: all of 4 meters at its widest. The work will be done on the 20th, and finished on that day too: so tells me the man who is low enough in the pecking order to really matter. Might be an idea to visit a different pub tonight - lets try one in Barrow in Furness - that'll be far enough away - inaccessible too. If it is not going to be closed for all that time but only for a day or two, could not some unknown party add a guerilla sign with details of possible access? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nod Posted November 10, 2017 Share Posted November 10, 2017 On 11/10/2017 at 13:02, recoveringacademic said: With friends like the good folk from my DNO, who needs enemies? I'm already persona non grata with the neighbours. This sign refers to work on our electricity connection which needs a trench dug across our lane: all of 4 meters at its widest. The work will be done on the 20th, and finished on that day too: so tells me the man who is low enough in the pecking order to really matter. Might be an idea to visit a different pub tonight - lets try one in Barrow in Furness - that'll be far enough away - inaccessible too. Krycy Ian you’ve pushed on The guy that came to connect our electricity supply refused to connect till we boarded two missing windows up at the back of the house Not water tight may have to schedule a revisit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToughButterCup Posted November 11, 2017 Author Share Posted November 11, 2017 10 hours ago, Ferdinand said: If it is not going to be closed for all that time but only for a day or two, could not some unknown party add a guerilla sign with details of possible access? General hilarity in the pub last night.....when someone suggested that in effect this gives me permission to close the road any day I choose. All I need is a few traffic cones. Its so very tempting, very tempting indeed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted November 11, 2017 Share Posted November 11, 2017 So you are looking forward to 25 days of peace and quiet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moira Niedzwiecka Posted November 11, 2017 Share Posted November 11, 2017 Hi Ian, Your neighbours sound like ours. Actually, it is only 3 of them, the rest of the village are really supportive. Our electricity connection is happening on 20th Nov. I am just waiting for the onslaught. We too have to cross a single track carriageway & duct along the highway verge. They recently reported us to planning enforcement saying we had built the house too tall, in the wrong place & a larger footprint than we had permission for. Also, they complained that as we had connected to the main village combined sewer instead of installing a klargester it was no longer an 'eco house' and therefore our planning permission was void & we should have to demolish the house. You couldn't make it up. As you can imagine, I had been meticulous about position & measurements fully expecting complaints. Enforcement were amazed at the accuracy of our build and wrote a curt reply saying 'The development as constructed is in full accordance with the plans as approved.' They also said that the mains sewer connection was made on the advice of Building Control & was an improvement on the original proposal. Happy days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted November 11, 2017 Share Posted November 11, 2017 8 minutes ago, Moira Niedzwiecka said: 'The development as constructed is in full accordance with the plans as approved.' Now that is out of the way, you can do what you like. Neighbours are strange things. There are 6 houses where I live. Only two of us are owner occupiers, the rest are rented out. 3 of the rentals never ever give trouble, but 1, and always the same one, has a high turnover of tenants, causes no end of trouble with the parking (1 house, 1 space, what is hard to understand). Since I have been away the tenant of the "unlucky" house has moved out. Shame as the TV they left in the driveway is apparently still there. I was going to put it by their front door with a note saying that I would be embarrassed that I had left rubbish for 8 weeks littering up the place. Looks like I have a trip to the dump when I get home. 16 minutes ago, Moira Niedzwiecka said: 'eco house' What does this mean anyway, ask 100 people, get at least 100 answers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterW Posted November 11, 2017 Share Posted November 11, 2017 Apparently we haven’t built to the approved plans from the planning application either ...... but if they checked, they would find we had built to the approved ones from the non material amendment application ..!! And that was from a random stranger who was walking past the end of the drive ..! Neighbours aren’t too bad as we are at the end of a private no through road. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moira Niedzwiecka Posted November 11, 2017 Share Posted November 11, 2017 Hi Steamy, 'eco house' is their term not mine. Sustainable dwelling is the term our architect used on the D&A. We had to outweigh the policy that our village is classed as an unsustainable location. Another of the main protagonists when we were going through planning was a tenant, a real Nazi bully boy, who has thankfully moved on. Also one of the others has now sold & is moving soon but it hasn't stopped him trying to cause us as much grief as possible. I never would have thought that people could be so spiteful & nasty. We had objections from as far away as Fareham in Hampshire & Tamworth in the West Mids & all over the place to our application in Leicestershire. The rest of the village is appalled. They all got interested in our build when they had an anonymous email about our planning application saying that they needed to object to 'protect the village' circulated from the list of contacts on the neighbourhood watch. Some of them tried to reply & ask who had sent it but it was a dead letterbox. Someone had opened an email account, sent the email & immediately closed it down. The village then got behind us, wrote in support of our application & bless them over 20 turned up to support us at the planning committee meeting. They like what we are doing & think it adds value to the village. We have lived in the village for over 20 years & were born & raised locally anyway so have a lot of support. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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