Denied planning permission in rural area

deanylkl

Hi guys, I was curious if any of you ever encountered a problem like this before.

My mother in law, recently found a site of land in an area she's always loved. Basically it would be residental subject to planning permission.

It took a heck of a lot of courage to put the wheels in motion to get a plan drawn up, and contemplate leaving the home she lived in for years.

After putting the planning permission up, she rang my wife in bits, That she was rejected due to ( in words I can't remember exactly ) not brining anything to the area, IE doctor, politician, B&b etc.

Is this just an unfortunate legal loophole to reject her, or is there more unhonest behaviour from the local residents going on ???

HelgaWard

If you go on to the website of the Local Authority she applied to, you can do an online planning search with her planning application file number. From this you should be able to access all public documents relating to the planning application. There will be a decision letter, which will explain why her permission was refused.

jmayo

Mind telling us what county ?

Some of them, for instance Wicklow, appear to have a requirement that one is inbred in order to get planning.
Everytime I think of the League of Gentlemen with their "local shop for locals".

Any the really funny thing is that most people get turned down for basic things whereas others miracously are allowed build thigns that stand out like a sore thumb. :rolleyes:

As other poster said go to local authority and look up Planning, Online Queries, and do search for either name or development address.
Some of the related documents may be stored in a fromat that needs a viewer that you can download, although they usually also have them in jpeg format.

Check out why the MIL was refused.
Did she ehhh get a local representative involved to make a representation ?
Local reps of particular parties are often much better at making representations than others.
I would forget for instance going to a Green Party rep, that is if you can find one.

plodder

Could be she didn't demonstrate a "need" to live in the particular rural area. Each county has its own development plan and has its own rules on who is allowed to build one-off houses. It varies a lot, the last time I checked anyway. Some parts of the country will allow you to build a house if you're prepared to live in it permanently, others will only allow people from an area to build there etc. Did she have a properly qualified person do the plans? That can be a problem too. But refusals always have to have sound reasons, as already pointed out. I think representations by politicians don't necessarily help. They'll take the credit when you get permission, but will have a good excuse ready when you don't.

Penn

deanylkl wrote: »

Hi guys, I was curious if any of you ever encountered a problem like this before.

My mother in law, recently found a site of land in an area she's always loved. Basically it would be residental subject to planning permission.

It took a heck of a lot of courage to put the wheels in motion to get a plan drawn up, and contemplate leaving the home she lived in for years.

After putting the planning permission up, she rang my wife in bits, That she was rejected due to ( in words I can't remember exactly ) not brining anything to the area, IE doctor, politician, B&b etc.

Is this just an unfortunate legal loophole to reject her, or is there more unhonest behaviour from the local residents going on ???

It's known as "Local Needs Criteria", and is a pretty standard part of planning permission for one-off residential houses. Its aim is to make sure that people from the locality have the ability to build and stay within the locality should they choose to.

For example, a couple who've lived in the region for 20 years have 4 children who are now adults and 3 of them are planning to build in the area. They have "Local Needs" as they grew up in the area, have ties to family there, their work/bank/doctor are likely located there etc. As such, the Council prefer to leave it open for people who demonstrate such needs to be able to build, instead of people simply moving into the area with no existing ties to it and reducing the chances of existing locals from being able to build there.

"Local Needs" criteria are also there to prevent people building a house and then selling it. It's generally a planning permission condition that you have to demonstrate that you plan to live in the house for the next 7 years.

Exceptions can be made if as stated, the person moving to the area has a qualification or profession which can benefit the community, such as a doctor.

However, with regards to "is there more unhonest behaviour from the local residents going on ???", the answer is most likely no. Chances are, most of the local residents would have known nothing about the application or wouldn't have cared. Submitted objections can be viewed on the planning application on the Council's website regardless. Chances are this was purely a Council decision based on planning legislation. To be honest, whoever your mother-in-law engaged (architect/surveyor/engineer) to submit the planning application should have made her aware of this beforehand and the unlikelihood of it being accepted. It's a very common requirement for one-off houses, particularly in rural areas.

Mrs OBumble

Great post from Penn: would just add that another part of the legislation is to prevent people just popping one-off houses wherever they feel like, with no consideration of how they will access services, and how transport will work. Far too many parts of the country have been polluted in this way already.

BHG1

Any one ever have any experience with cc saying a grant of planning would be over development of a small landholding?