TridentTested
Member
- Messages
- 1,819
Don't be so ******* the planners.
I've spent most of my professional life fighting, and many times winning against planners on my clients' behalves, but recently the planners are my best friends. They managed to stop a property developer who wanted to add another 54 residential units to our building (also under PD) by a demand for a Section 106 contribution which he was unable to afford. Phew. Thank you planners.
So whether you view them as little Hitlers or not rather depends on whether you are the developer or the affected party.
To play devil's advocate for a minute: imagine what the country would look like if every house had a double garage at its front boundary. You can't find a precedent to support your cause and the planners will be equally careful to avoid your cause becoming a precedent for obvious reasons.
However if you do want to pursue it - and you are right not to take no for an answer - I would certainly suggest meeting them in person. Put aside any attitude you have with authority (they are not authority anyway, council policy is locally produced, they implement democratic policy, they are your local civil servants, they serve you) go and see them and have an informal chat. It's often surprising what they can recommend.
If you intend producing drawings I would suggest you don't rely on new planting or shrubbery to conceal the building - I've been there before and the planner's view of greenery is it is something which can be removed as easily as planted - if you want to mitigate the impact of the building consider keeping its height as low as possible, consider digging down to help this, consider earth banking to conceal part of it. Look up the Council's policies on reducing parked cars (there's bound to be one) and make reference to your desire to get your cars off the road in line with this policy. Do a survey of your neighbourhood, I would be surprised if you can't find a couple of examples of what you want. It may not be a precedent on your road but it will be better than nothing.
Finally, bribery works. And the way bribery works these days is you could mention you would be willing to make a Section 106 contribution to the Council's open spaces and parks (for example). Councils are desperate for money and this might be attractive to them.
