Planning permission to remove Grass ???

rilly99

The front of my Semi D has 65% grass in front and wall ,and the balance is made up of concrete with gate in front and a dished pavement for access for car .

I intend to get rid of the grass and replace with concrete , knock down the wall and apply to DCC for the rest of the pavement to be dished so I can easily drive cars in to park, permission I understand takes about 12 weeks .

When I rang them today I was left with the impression that I cannot carry out any work until I get the planning through,

This I can’t understand because if I got the work done above and never got or applied for the additional pavement to be dished , I could still use the existing access to get couple of cars in and out ( albeit not as handy and probably only get 2 cars in rather than the 3 cars I would like to ) ,

I thought I could get the work done , use the exiting one car dished pavement entrance while I wait for planning to go through , if for some unknown reason it was refused I would just have to make do with the one entrance(dished pavement ) , I think the chap in DCC was giving me best practice.
Any help or advise appreciated

Gumbo

You need planning permission for the works so DCC are correct, you cannot do these works until planning is granted. If you remove grass area and replace with hard standing, planning is required.

If you do them, you are into retention permission which is more costly fee wise and there's no guarantee that you will get it.
I've done 2 of these in the last 2 months and only one had a good outcome. One site had to replant a large portion of their front garden back to soft landscaping.

Better to apply for planning prior to the works commencing.

slimjimmc

Providing parking for 3 cars might be the issue, apparently it's only a Class 6 exempted development if you keep the parking spaces to 2 or less.
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/2001/en/si/0600.html

(ii) the provision to the front or side of the house of a hard surface for the parking of not more than 2 motor vehicles used for a purpose incidental to the enjoyment of the house as such.

Markcheese

What if you converted your lawn to gravel ? You could park on it but it's not hard standing - and is water permeable -
Doesn't solve the dished pavement / removing front wall ,planning issue.

Gumbo

Markcheese wrote: »

What if you converted your lawn to gravel ? You could park on it but it's not hard standing - and is water permeable -
Doesn't solve the dished pavement / removing front wall ,planning issue.

Would most likely still need planning, or at the very least confirmation from the LA water division that it fully complies with SUDS, so your talking about an engineered build up, not just cut back the grass and pour gravel on it.

rilly99

Ok thanks for the confirmation that makes sense to what chap was saying , I need planning to remove grass AND the dished pavements , although I suspect in my area quite a lot have been done without same - usually where they don't need / require the pavement to be adjusted , just one more question he mentioned drawings of same - ca these be hand drawn once I do them to scale ? And would I needs to show where the new proposed hate pillar would be ?

Gumbo

rilly99 wrote: »

Ok thanks for the confirmation that makes sense to what chap was saying , I need planning to remove grass AND the dished pavements , although I suspect in my area quite a lot have been done without same - usually where they don't need / require the pavement to be adjusted , just one more question he mentioned drawings of same - ca these be hand drawn once I do them to scale ? And would I needs to show where the new proposed hate pillar would be ?

Technically they can be hand drawn, BUT, they need to be to the appropriate Department of Environment scales, you need 6 copies, so the chances of hand drawing one of them and getting accurate copies to scale will be a problem.

As a brief breakdown, you need to show :

Existing Site Plan.
Proposed Site Plan.

Existing Front Elevations/Streetscape (Showing Adjoining Properties)
Proposed Front Elevations/Streetscape (Showing Adjoining Properties)
These elevations need to show a detail of what you want to do, dimensions and a description of material finishes proposed.

Then you need your OSi maps, which must be outlined etc

Newspaper Notice required and wording must match the site notice and application form to a tee!

If you can do it, its simple, if you cant, its complicated and costly as one mistake means you have to re-do everything as if the application is in-validated, then you need to pay a new application fee, new newspaper notice and re-print all drawings and lodge same again.

Strolling Bones

rilly99 wrote: »

although I suspect in my area quite a lot have been done without same

That boroughs public drainage system is under severe distress in many parts because so many people did a Nike on this.

And how they all lament when the place floods....