Annoyed by new neighbour's lack of respect for the street

Send an anomous letter to the council. Likely nobody in enforcement yet knows about it.

A door requires a carpark?

Council won't act on anonymity.

What sort of house is it, Is it attached or are they independent of other homes?

Correct, those days are long gone, in fact local authorities have introduced quite stringent procedures in relation to reporting alledged unauthorised developments which absolutely require the persons reporting, Details, Address and contact information. My own lists quite clearly what is required and go further by saying they will not investigate reports without full contact details of the person reporting.

This said, local authority will not disclose any information of those making a complaint.

I'm assuming this approach to weed out spurious complaints.

Altering a public path is a definite no. Just submit the letter.

You wouldn't want someone to trip up on said path and get an injury which could lead to a claim. I doubt they have even considered that.

It's not just the front door. There are multiple requirements for making 2 separate properties like fire separation. Utilities etc.

Another reason the council won't entertain anonymous reports is if it eventually goes to court.

while a complainant's  name won't be revealed, information can be sought under FOI Act and whilst details will be redacted, it's a process of elimination as to who reported the breach.

Enforcement not endowment.

I completely agree , I can't comment on the rights and wrongs of local authorities introducing stringent reporting guidelines but clearly there was a lot of spurious and unsubstantiated complaints being lodged, clogging up planning departments.

I can say, right across the road from me a 70's style bungalow has just been tripled in size and roof raised by 10 feet. Absolutely no planning Lodge (confirmed) , I believe reports lodged and its a very proactive local authority. Will anything be done, that's an open question, personally I feel the restoration looks excellent, does this mean it's acceptable without planning, No but like yourself, I'm not getting involved ,it's a very rural location. If a local Authority can't see an unauthorised development like this and not ask questions, there is seriously something wrong (the property in full view from a main road )

You said you're annoyed they were allowed to do this, but that they didn't get permission. Which is it? I'm guessing they weren't actually allowed. In which case council probably don't know yet.

Not sure why you mention garage. But you're mistaken, you don't need permission to convert a garage subject to reasonable comditions

Nonsense. That applies where they have to investigate on private property. If council know it is unauthorised, they have act on it. They don't need anyone to assign an complaint to. It's unauthorised development, if they know it happened, its literally their job to get involved. They can commence enforcement on their own.

If you're aren't going to let council know about it. Then you can't complain that they didn't do anything.

None of those issues you mentioned have anything to do with the planning department.

All planning permission involved private property. That's not relevant at all. The vast majority major enforcement actions have been the council acting themselves. By the logic above, a group of neighbors could all collectively agree to build without planning and not complained on each other to evade the process. Good luck with that.As for how who the could know. A simple photograph of the street would show the unauthorized development in progress, at that point it's black and white. There is is no hearsay, their is a publicly accessible record of planning. A planner could confirm in seconds. There is no grey area.

What you are thinking of is where somebody had permission to build 20 feet high, and a neighbour says they build 22 feet. Or they are building an exempt development, an a neighbour claims the area is too high. In that cases you can't tell from a photo, it's entirely in a grey area. They they need to investigate and take measurements. And they want a name in order to avoid people making spurious claims in order to "check" the neighbours work.

Not an architect or anything but I was looking at converting a garage but it was more complex than that. It was converting a garage into a one bedroom apartment and building over it. I was told I would need planning permission for that. In the end there were very deep flaws in the house and we abandoned the purchase. Open to correction here.

Lol, it's not an entirely separate matter to planning laws. It is completely, and only, about planning laws. First the private property guff, now the above. Is this some elaborate joke I'm missing.

I'm not at all sure what your issue is, your trying to make something out of nothing.

I've only dealt with the issue surrounding a person reporting an alledged unauthorised development and what is required. I made no judgement on planning laws, breaches, god bad or indifferent.

The OP asked a perfectly legitimate question, a few posts suggested report the issue, followed by some suggesting do it anonymously. I've simply point out the Facts.

I'll type this slowly for you.

Namely Local Authorities no longer act on reports / Complaints submitted using anonymity not entirely sure what part of this fact your NOT getting. Local authorities will only respond, deal with a complaint when they have full contact details of the person lodging the complaint, this does NOT mean Local authorities will share this information with anyone.I again make no judgement on this fact , you seem to be going off into wild tangents, unclear what your actually posting about, as you mention GUFF, you'll understand what I mean.

I suggest , you take some time, do it slowly, go back to the start of the Thread and try to grasp what I've actually said before you go off into a meaningless rant .

What your clearly MISSING is the actual Point I've raised.

Unlikely that's going to happen to be honest, apart from the fact the Alledged person breaching planning is also a constituent. I'd suspect most local politicians will stay clear of this issues and direct people to the local authority, whereby they'll be required to submit their details along with those of the complaint they wish to lodge.

I've seen countless examples. Politicians will contact the council, they won't necessarily ask for anything to be done, but asking for information on the situation is usually enough to get wheels turning. Asking for an update isn't taking sides so they're covered

Thread is going around in circle's so before I leave it.

If anyone has any doubt on the process of lodging a complaint or reporting unauthorised development, a very simple check of applicable local authority sets out what is required and the process involved.

I accept discrete enquires by local politician's can a do occur but that's all they are, discrete enquires.

As a recent example, I've mentioned a development right beside me, I know for a fact 3 local councillors contacted and one TD, all said of course we'll enquire, some came back with forms to fill (name and address required), one said, I've made that enquiry, just go on the website, fill in the details (yours) and the TD , respectively declined , explaining that it's a local authority issue, they made contact and were advised the complainant needs to report the issue formally and directly.

I should point out I was not one of the people who made enquires but 4 neighbors did.

So, I'll leave it at that .

Contact the local authority road maintenance services about the alterations to the path. If it is a public path they have no right to alter it. Does the work done make it more difficult for wheelchair users and buggies to navigate?

Unauthorised developments IS planning law. And only planning law. The fact that you missed that key point really highlights you don’t know what you are talking about. Mentioning planning law is not a wild tangent, it’s the entire matter.

maybe read that slowly yourself if your still struggling to grasp the relevance.

Planning enforcement can, and do enforce these matters on their own accord. It’s literally the law, and their job. The claim that you need a named complainant to give them power to do anything is complete nonsense. As I said, you are confusing two very different scenerios. Investigating a claim verses a known breech.

I'm not sure what the problem is here. If it's splitting into flats as you say then it's probably for rental ergo they aren't your permanent neighbours it's just an investor property. Why wouldn't you complain with your name on it......

No, no. I expected there to be planning permission needed for change of purpose for the garage into a one bedroom apartment. The three bedroom house had an extension (big bedroom plus wetroom) built out the back for the previous owners retired mother, I wanted to change it into a one bedroom apartment (1000 a month). Now the garage had a flat room, which I hated and I wanted to build on a bedroom and half to extend the house. Shure you might as well "be hung for a sheep as a lamb" job. In the end the Surveyor found so many problems with the house, he stopped the survey and we withdrew the offer.

Most of the neighbours on the estate have had something done to their garages over the years. They mostly look like home offices and and second living rooms

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