Planning issues - post them here MOD WARNING post #1

Could anyone confirm if there would be any kind of planning restrictions on changing the appearance of the front elevation of a house i.e. wall paint colour, over painting feature cladding or removing said cladding, removing window boxes, installing door canopies, removing hedging to build block walls or steel railings?

Some context, I live in a large estate some 12 years where there are 3, 4 & 5 bed terraced and semi homes and apartment buildings. The houses all had the same look, walls finished in cream paint colour, a beech coloured cladding to one side of the front wall & a window box above the front entrance door. All houses were uniform in appearance originally, only difference was front door colour changed in sequence red/black/green/blue. Over the past few years people in the estate seem to be in competition to see who's house can stand out most, changing to wall colours to all kinds of greens, greys, blues. Some have completely removed the cladding, plastered the wall behind and painted, others over painted the cladding a different colour. Window boxes have been removed and door canopies installed in that space .. the uniform look of the houses has been lost to the detriment of the estate I believe. Another thing that seems to be everywhere are large bin or bike storage units, some DIY wooden contraptions others steel or plastic yokes. Are these even allowed in front gardens?

So my question, what if any restrictions or permission requirements would there be to altering the appearance of a house from the original approved design? I'm guessing a lot of the residents in my estate think they can just do as they please!!

If you aren't happy with what the neighbours are doing and believe they are in breach of planning regulations then report the matter to the enforcement section of your local planning department.

You don't make any submission as the appeal is being made against the Council's decision. Basically the Council have made a decision in your favour and they now have to justify that decision while your neighbour has to attempt to prove that the decision was wrong.

HI,

This may not be the right forum but hopefully someone can clarify a few things for me. We created a pedestrian gate which at the time we were advised was exempt. Following complaints from neighbours we were issued an enforcement notice and one of the options was apply for retention planning which we did.

I kept the council informed of this and on the phone I was informed the process would stop pending the outcome of the planning. Planning got rejected locally for undesirable precedent and we appealed to ABP. (which was grated)

In the interim I got summoned by the council to court on the matter. It was adjourned pending the planning decision.

However now the council are asking me to pay legal costs. Is that correct?

Id agree (mostly) with sydthebeat above. The Council would have withdrawn the case by now in light of permission having been granted and given the fact that they instigated the case and then withdrew it they should pay their own legal costs. However the fact remains that you did initially carry out an unauthorised development and through the normal enforcement procedures the Council were obligated in taking the legal case. They could try to justify the request for payment of their fees using that point.

In my County the local Council would normally pay their own costs in these situations but that is usually after a bit of negotiating. My advice would be to discuss it with a local Councillor and if that doesn't work out have a talk with your solicitor.