Planning Permission, but what does it mean?

[Lincolnshire Ian]

We have been ploughing through planning for 5 months, narrowly avoiding a refusal (saved by the Planning Committee Panel) and we heard yesterday that the plans were being approved under delegated powers, BUT with a condition for an amendment to the front elevation. 

Our Planning Officer is on holiday and we got this feedback from one of his colleagues, but they want us to wait until our Planning Officer returns for a full explanation. 

I am assuming that the change they are looking for will be something we can live with like the ratio of render to cladding, design of front porch etc, but we have no idea. Am I right to think that if they are approving the application the changes can't be big structural stuff like changing the roof design? 

We have been waiting so long for planning, and it looks like we need to wait even longer. Has anyone encountered this sort of scenario before and what sort of changes could we be informed about when the Planner returns from his holiday. 

Thanks 

 

[Jilly]

Congratulations! It sounds like you are are nearly home and dry, 5 months is pretty good compared to many peoples’ experiences. 
 

You could try posting some anonymised elevations of the offending elevation to see if anyone can make helpful observations/suggestions. Planners are often guided by the appearance of local houses, so a radical departure from that might be the issue unless there’s a special case. They have an annoying habit of saying ‘No, I don’t like that’ , but not really telling you what they do want. 
If you adore your design and don’t want to change it, you could start muttering about an appeal as they really don’t want you to do that either. Or how about using the time to draw a few alternatives to present to them in order to reach a compromise? 

Edited January 25 by Jilly

[Lincolnshire Ian]

We are building a replacement dwelling in "the open countryside" - outside the local development plan area. 

The stumbling block we came up against is that the house we build needs to be of "high architectural standard". We started the process of submitting designs that fitted in with the local street scene - brick outer skin to fit in with the typical vernacular. The planners said this wasn't of "high architectural standard" although weren't able to offer us any guidelines, meetings or anything really - they just wanted to see revised plan. The plan they have approved is a small brick plinth, and a mix of render and cladding for the walls with Alu-clad windows, tiled roof with built in PV panels. They have approved this, but we need to wait until the planner returns from holiday to hear what changes are needed to the front elevation. 

For context we are demolishing a derelict 1960's prefab bungalow! 

[nod]

It could be absolutely anything 

On our previous build we were part of a listed site They specified local flare even though the listed building had been re slated with Welsh etc etc 

The stumbling block was PV was part of the planning Which we hated and also Heritage said absolutely not 

We simply agreed with planners But didn’t put the PV on 

Whilst we had monthly visits from Heritage Once everything is signed off Planners loose interest and you never hear from them again 

My guess it will be something really inconsequential 

Why he can’t answer an email while on his Jollies beggars belief 

End home working 😁

[Jilly]

1 hour ago, Lincolnshire Ian said:

We are building a replacement dwelling in "the open countryside" - outside the local development plan area. 

The stumbling block we came up against is that the house we build needs to be of "high architectural standard". We started the process of submitting designs that fitted in with the local street scene - brick outer skin to fit in with the typical vernacular. The planners said this wasn't of "high architectural standard" although weren't able to offer us any guidelines, meetings or anything really - they just wanted to see revised plan. The plan they have approved is a small brick plinth, and a mix of render and cladding for the walls with Alu-clad windows, tiled roof with built in PV panels. They have approved this, but we need to wait until the planner returns from holiday to hear what changes are needed to the front elevation. 

For context we are demolishing a derelict 1960's prefab bungalow! 

So in theory you can have something amazing!