The labyrinthine world of planning law isn't an area with which I'm overly familiar but investigations into a development that has taken place in the front garden of the property that adjoins mine have led me to believe that these works are outside of the bounds of permitted development.
Allow me to elaborate.
The curtilage of the property extends some 100 feet from the principal elevation of the dwelling in a southerly direction, sloping with a 25% gradient as far as a steep verge which plunges sharply to the busy westbound carriageway of the A303.
There is no land to the rear of the property but the front garden, having a sunny aspect, is a place from which my elderly, disabled neighbour likes to enjoy the sunshine whilst sitting in her wheelchair.
Last year, after having enjoyed a surfeit of Croft Original in the evening sunshine, she had a fit of the vapours and accidentally disengaged the brake of her wheelchair and careered headlong, like a character from Heidi, towards the A303 with only a fortuitously positioned laburnum tree preventing her from somersaulting over the verge and under the wheels of a passing Eddie Stobart truck.
Nonetheless, she suffered a broken left femur from the impact.
Consequently, her sons have been undertaking the task of levelling a part of her front garden so she can enjoy the sunshine without succombing to the effects of gravity.
This development has constituted a rather extensive earth moving operation and the building of a 2 foot retaining wall to contain the displaced soil which has been levelled to provide a safe location for the old lady to park her chair.
While I think it's wonderful that these two lads have so much concern for their old mother that they go to all this effort, I can't help but feel that the scale of the development should have been designated an engineering project and that the resultant raised area behind the retaining wall constitutes a structure with a vertical dimension in excess of 300 mm.
Both of these require planning consent.
While I am sympathetic to my neighbour's predicament I feel I can't simply ignore the fact that a transgression of planning law has taken place and let it go unreported; I consider myself a good citizen after all.
I'm just wondering if anyone else has been in a similar situation and, if so, did relations with the offending neighbour deteriorate after action had been taken?
Allow me to elaborate.
The curtilage of the property extends some 100 feet from the principal elevation of the dwelling in a southerly direction, sloping with a 25% gradient as far as a steep verge which plunges sharply to the busy westbound carriageway of the A303.
There is no land to the rear of the property but the front garden, having a sunny aspect, is a place from which my elderly, disabled neighbour likes to enjoy the sunshine whilst sitting in her wheelchair.
Last year, after having enjoyed a surfeit of Croft Original in the evening sunshine, she had a fit of the vapours and accidentally disengaged the brake of her wheelchair and careered headlong, like a character from Heidi, towards the A303 with only a fortuitously positioned laburnum tree preventing her from somersaulting over the verge and under the wheels of a passing Eddie Stobart truck.
Nonetheless, she suffered a broken left femur from the impact.
Consequently, her sons have been undertaking the task of levelling a part of her front garden so she can enjoy the sunshine without succombing to the effects of gravity.
This development has constituted a rather extensive earth moving operation and the building of a 2 foot retaining wall to contain the displaced soil which has been levelled to provide a safe location for the old lady to park her chair.
While I think it's wonderful that these two lads have so much concern for their old mother that they go to all this effort, I can't help but feel that the scale of the development should have been designated an engineering project and that the resultant raised area behind the retaining wall constitutes a structure with a vertical dimension in excess of 300 mm.
Both of these require planning consent.
While I am sympathetic to my neighbour's predicament I feel I can't simply ignore the fact that a transgression of planning law has taken place and let it go unreported; I consider myself a good citizen after all.
I'm just wondering if anyone else has been in a similar situation and, if so, did relations with the offending neighbour deteriorate after action had been taken?
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