we have just received a letter informing us that there will be a application for planning permission on a field behind our house that the estate uses for walking, kids playing football etc. What is the best way to launch a appeal against this along with the rest of our neighbors?
thanks richi

Contact your local planning department to lodge an objection. NB You need to be quick as it has to be before the cut off date, which will be on the letter they sent you….

Read the letter – it will tell you! something like look at the plans on council website and then email your comments.

If you want to lobby further then facebook campaigns work well, get the Parish involved and off you go. Im sure all the other Nimbys, sorry community members will agree with you.

NB Highly unlikely you’ll be successful as local authorities are under huge pressure to build as many homes as possible from central government, and they’re building on every spot they can.

Get everyone to write to the council planning office (or whatever they are called).

And maybe some friends – saying how they use the field for recreation, and how it would be a great loss.

Shame you don’t know loads of people who may have enough time on their hands and are sat near a computer who might help write the odd letter on your behalf . . . .

Is it a public space or does everyone just treat it like one ?

Newts and bats double quick, say you saw some if they haven’t done a survey as it might drag it out while you come up with plan b

You can’t just block planning permission because you don’t like it. You need to have a sound argument against…

The council should have an official guide to what planning can and can’t allow. Should be on-line. Download it, read it and find some facts. It’s no good saying you don’t like it but if you have some actual reasons then you have a better case. Get you neighbours on board and get them to write in separately with an objection. More official objections is better than a single one that claims to have lots of local support.

Technical issues often include traffic generation and its impact on resi roads nearby (like your estate?), excessive density, inappropriate housing types (flats in the countryside rather than family houses?), not compliant with council standards for social / affordable housing, crap designs, loss of amenity space (or is it really a farmer’s field?), loss of wildlife habitat (bats and frogs etc), overloading local school / doctor etc.

Is there a pond? Check for newts.

There must be an official consultation period which must last a certain amount of time. I believe it’s 28days. As said you need to have facts and genuine objections. ‘We don’t want it there’ generally doesn’t cut the mustard. Get your local councillor on board. They’re worth their weight in gold for stuff like this. Failing that, newts or another rare flora or fauna.
And if there is a residents association or some banner that the residents can use to identify themselves then all the better.
If you can find out who the councils wildlife officer is try and have a word with them. I know the local one to me and he’s very accommodating.

Firstly and most importantly, buy a quilted gilet

Secondly write an incoherent and ill informed tirade to the local rag

Then march to your local town hall with half a dozen others and chant tired slogans

Get you photograph holding a newt in plastercast, with a very very very sad face (both you and the newt) on the front of the local rag

Chain yourself to a digger

Book out the village hall for months preaching to a cowd of the indignant converted

Tie the developer in with legal bunff doubling his costs

Make sure that everyone knows that building some houses other people might be able to afford will make all your houses yuo bought for buttons and, after riding the wave of a bubble that brought the worlds economy to its knees, are now worth a mint might be worth marginally less

Lastly chain yourself to another digger

What are they building? Asylum Seeker Detention Centre? AIDS farm?

[sorry, couldn’t resist]

Hi Richi

You probably want to talk to aracer of this parish. He and I are currently in the middle of a planning inquiry doing exactly this.

Richi,

I’ve been sent to this thread by stimpy – drop me a line at: aracer AT mail DOT com and I’m happy to help you through the process, one which we’re a long way down the road in and I’ve played a very active part in (today I spoke as a witness at the public inquiry for a planning appeal).

If you’ve just got the letter then you’ve got a few weeks, but it pays to get organised as soon as possible (though don’t expect too much from me before Friday when our inquiry finishes!)

…actually, having now read through this thread, most of the advice you are getting is very good (unusually for STW!)

Quilted gilet is easily the best piece of advice

Aracer- you know what you need to do for tomorrow at the Inquiry 😆

You may well find your local conservative councillors will not object to housing as they see votes, where as if its social housing/rented then the labour councillor will be very happy, more votes for them.

Usually the builders just go to appeal and usually win as the palnning bod doesnt actually live near by and allows the plan, unless its totally out of character with the area.

Important things to check on the plans are how close and how high are the houses, access points to the plots,flood risk,and value of the houses.

Bit nippy tomorrow afternoon, quilted gilet might come in handy. Though I was thinking of bringing you some marmite sandwiches 😉

It appears our planning inspector is a cyclist 🙂

object saying that the Council would lose a valuable piece of green infrastructure, which has mutliple ecosystem services benefits…all current buzzwords…

it’s worth bearing in mind that there is no 3rd party right of appeal so the only way you could get into an inquiry situation would be if the planning authority refuses permission. As set out above, therefore, you need to make the most of the objection opportunity in the run up to the decision.

If the land is already allocated for housing – or the council don’t have a 5 year housing land supply identified then it is likely to be very difficult to resist.

You could look at Village Green legislation if the land has genuinely been used by the local community for recreation purposes over a long period of time. However, I think the coalition Government has reduced the potential for that to be used – can’t recall what’s changed though.

Quilted gilet would be good start though.

Get some neighbours down the field.

Wait.

I am sure I’ve heard of people getting land designated as a village green

I will add seriously, that all the land behind our houses for half a mile, only has one access road. It’s never been built on because the guy who owned the access road wouldn’t sell. Eventually all the land was sold to each of the house owners but the point is that it was blocked for many years because no access could be gained.

might be worth looking at .

If the land is already allocated for housing – or the council don’t have a 5 year housing land supply identified then it is likely to be very difficult to resist.

Difficult, yes, but not impossible (hopefully). On the contrary if they do have a 5YHLS and it is not allocated for housing (and they have a current or at least recent local plan, though that’s mostly required for a 5YHLS anyway), then it’s likely to be relatively straightforward to resist. My understanding is that it’s very hard for a developer to win an appeal for a site which is not allocated in an area with a 5YHLS (provided everything else is lined up in terms of policies in the local plan and there isn’t some policy which allows development on such a site which isn’t allocated for housing), so you simply have to find a reason for the councillors to reject it which your local bod is prepared to run with. edit: actually not being allocated for housing ought to be sufficient.

I will add seriously, that all the land behind our houses for half a mile, only has one access road. It’s never been built on because the guy who owned the access road wouldn’t sell. Eventually all the land was sold to each of the house owners but the point is that it was blocked for many years because no access could be gained.

Similar situation in an area not far from where my parents live. The developer bought one of the houses and bulldozed it for an access road.

aracer – yes you’re correct. Not what i was saying though – just pointing out a couple of things to try and find out.

Mmmm…marmite sarnies…nom nom nom 😀

Glad to have found myself on a planning team that are all cyclists in front of a planning inspector who’s a cyclist too arguing about visual impact on views from a bike against a developer who singularly failed to account for bike traffic.

What are the odds on that, eh?

hamishthecat you’re right that the Govt has modified Town and Village Green matters; the modification you’re thinking of is Assets of Community Value under the Localism Act 2011.

Funny – as well as being in a planning inquiry right now with aracer, I was giving a seminar on Town & Village Greens / Assets of Community Value last week.

Sometimes coincidence is just the most amazing thing, isn’t it?

The key point is to base your objection on official policy, not just local opinion. This can be government policy, local plan, etc. (I’m not quite up to date on what the local plans are called these days.)

It helps to get the local councilors on your side, but check first whether they are on the planning committee. The committee members must not take a view on the application until they are presented with it at the committee, so if you involve them, they may have leave the meeting when the application is discussed.

The recent legislation on village greens means you can’t apply if a planning application (“trigger event”) has been submitted.

I’m not quite up to date on what the local plans are called these days

Well NPPF appears to have gone out on a limb and calls them “Local Plans”.

stimpy – I’ve checked the bread situation and that’s a serious offer – actually had some today I didn’t eat!

Love me some marmite sarnies 🙂

A few points to note:

The new National Planning Policy Framework gives a presumption in favour of development.

Most Local Plans and five year housing supplies are subject to challenge – both for and against whatever you want.

Eric Pickles is a complete nobber.

And finally I don’t know anything about your field or circumstances but its worth noting there is a housing crisis and its caused by people with houses with over-inflated values stopping new homes from being built. Where will everyone live? How many houses are in the 5 year supply in your district? How many did they not build in the last 5 years compared to the previous supply targets. – Sorry 😀

A small point of correction. The NPPF does NOT give a general presumption in favour of development. In some limited circumstances there is such a presumption, but it is certainly not a general presumption.

The new National Planning Policy Framework gives a presumption in favour of sustainable development.

FTFY – seemingly trivial, but actually hugely important.

aaagh – beaten to it by the man who knows better. As stimpy says, even that only applies in a limited range of circumstances.

Hey aracer, it’s almost like we’ve been thinking and talking about the same thing… 😆

.

Sounds like it’s too late for village green status…but after the Port at Newhaven shut the only sandy beach for miles, several years of legal wrangling has resulted in the beach acheiving village green status 🙂

You need to get as many people locally to object as possible – this will influence councillors on the planning committee.

The content of the objections has to be based on what are called material considerations which the local planning officer has to base his planning decision on.

It’s no good simply saying we’ve used the space for years etc. Each objection has to be based on planning legislation – it could be that the field is a flood risk, the entrance to the location has poor transport provision or would be dangerous, sustainability (too far from local schools, shops etc without using a car), area of importance to wildlife in local plan, will block a public right of way etc.

Speak to the local nature trust to see if there are any known Great Crested Newt populations within 500m of the site. You can also make a free enquiry in relation to this from the local agency that records this – up here it’s the Hancock Museum in Newcastle. We recently discovered recorded colonies that the council had somehow overlooked during the planning process. It pretty much stopped a planned development dead.

When considering development proposals the Council will take a positive approach that reflects the presumption in favour of sustainable development contained in the National Planning Policy Framework. It will always work proactively with applicants jointly to find solutions which mean that proposals can be approved wherever possible, and to secure development that improves the economic, social and environmental conditions in the area.

Planning applications that accord with the policies in this Local Plan (and, where relevant, with polices in neighbourhood plans) will be approved without delay, unless material considerations indicate otherwise.

Where there are no policies relevant to the application or relevant policies are out of date at the time of making the decision then the Council will grant permission unless material considerations indicate otherwise – taking into account whether:

Any adverse impacts of granting permission would significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits, when assessed against the policies in the National Planning Policy Framework taken as a whole; or

Specific policies in that Framework indicate that development should be restricted.

Its all down to the land allocations in the approved plan and not the one in development as well as the other policies in the local plan. If you are really serious then a planning consultant paid for by the group of objectors may help you make your case more effectively.

Another avenue is to take out a land registry search on the land to check and see if there are any covenants that would prevent or limit development/use.