Appeal for retrospective garage won whilst the threat of prosecution hangs over the development.

A new client approached us with a rather urgent situation and needed our help.

A nearly completed garage building had been served an enforcement notice, that notice hadn’t been appealed and prosecution action was being pursued by the Council.  Planning permission was just about to be refused for the retention of the building and things were looking somewhat…complicated.

C2C Planning Consultants sought a stay of execution on the prosecution action while appealing the refusal of planning permission within 4 days of the issue of the refusal notice.   The Council refused to pause the proceedings, despite it not being expedient to pursue action while our client had every right to appeal the refusal of planning permission.

We are delighted to have received planning permission from the Planning Inspectorate.

“…when completed with rendered walls as well as windows and doors as shown …the building will not look out of keeping within this residential area. The appearance of the new structure will be softened substantially with the addition of planting as shown on the submitted plans…

The appeal development is sufficiently well designed such that it respects the special qualities of this part of Torbay. In relation to the main issue, the development does not have a harmful effect upon the character and appearance of the site and surrounding area…

I consider …that the building is acceptable on its own merits in terms of this main issue and is not reliant upon the previous planning permission as a fall-back proposal.”

We will be writing to the Council to ensure that the prosecution action will be dropped as, for some reason, they haven’t contacted us to confirm!

Congratulations all round.

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Who wouldn’t want their mother/mother-in-law living at the end of the garden?

Whilst this article in This is Money online magazine mentions that one of the interviewees applied for planning permission for a granny annex at the end of the garden, it can be the case that planning permission is not required.

We certainly would recommend you apply for a Certificate of Lawfulness.

Contact us at C2C Planning or fill out the form below to discuss your current or emerging needs (it doesn’t have to be your mother or your mother-in-law!)

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Appeal won to convert barn to dwelling under Class Q

It took two planning applications and an appeal to the Secretary of State to finally be granted planning permission to convert this beauty into a dwelling.

The issue centred around whether the appellant must “prove beyond all reasonable doubt” that the building and its associated land was in sole agricultural use.  

Handelsbanken in Plymouth

C2C Planning Consultants has assisted the Handelsbanken to locate to the ground floor of Salt Quay House in Plymouth, completing the ‘professional services building’ with our colleagues the Foot Anstey law firm, an accountant and now the bank.

Handelsbanken comes to Salt Quay House in Plymouth

The ground floor unit has been empty since the building was constructed in 2009. Despite the strong and sustained marketing of the premises by companies such as JLL and Vickery Holman there has been no serious interest in the ground floor unit for its designated A1/A3 Use Class (a shop or café/restaurant) .

We submitted an application to remove the condition so that the ground floor unit can be occupied either as a shop, a café/restaurant, a financial institution (A2), or as an office (B1).

Having met initial resistance, we successfully argued that the original restrictive condition and a short temporary grant of planning permission were contrary to the Framework in that they did not encourage a strong, competitive economy, but rather acted as an impediment to sustainable economic growth in this part of Sutton Harbour. The amendments to the GPDO in 2014 allows the change of use of an A1 unit to A2 without requiring the benefit of planning permission.

We still had to fight hard to show the Council that the use of the ground floor by an A2 use was more active and inviting to the Quayside than the empty unit!  Eventually, we were granted the benefit of planning permission and Handelsbanken moved in last week.

With over 10,000 employees, 800 branches and opening over 140 branches in the UK alone in the last 15 years, this Swedish bank has ambitious growth plans.

Please take the opportunity to pop in and say hello if you are passing. The manager is Phillip Harvey. Their official launch will take place later in the summer. May we wish them every success !

Isn’t it a shame when the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing?

I’ve been reading about a young couple in Wyke who have been using a piece of Green Belt land they purchased from Bradford Council as a garden for some three years.

They bought the plot from the Council with a contract stating ‘the land not to be used for any purpose other than as a private garden‘.

Image their surprise when the planning department wrote to advise that any change of its use, including its use as a garden, or anything that is erected on the site requires planning permission.

Whilst I expect that it was the shed and chicken coop that it most objectionable in such a situation, wouldn’t it have helped for the Council’s left hand to know what the right hand was doing? The Council have now been left with a PR nightmare and (free range) egg over their faces arising from the failure of the Estates Department to tell the Planning Department that they had sold land for garden and that for the purchasers to use it for the said use, would require the benefit of planning permission.

Such scenarios don’t assist Council’s in advocating our planning system to the masses.