Beekeeping Unit

[Repwoc]

How did you get on with the planning application, Etton?

 

[Etton]

How did you get on with the planning application, Etton?

Hi, believe it or not we are still in discussions and application not yet submitted. As it’s green belt it looks like we may be going down the ‘Affordable Homes’ route with 5 units , one being the ‘Market Property’ for ourselves with attached bee unit and the other 4 being HA properties.

 

[Repwoc]

Planning is unbelievably slow. We purchased a property with some land at the end of last year. The plan was to demolish the existing late Victorian brick cottage (single skin walls, no proper floors, in very poor state of repair) and replace it with a Passivhaus zero carbon highly insulated house. We submitted a 'pre-app' on the advice of the architect and the response has just come back. They have declared the cottage a 'non-listed heritage asset' and said that we would not be allowed to demolish it.

So our plans appear to be scuppered - the cottage really is just a pile of bricks with a leaky roof just about standing up by itself, but the Conservation Officer has taken a liking to it and wants us to keep it. He/she even said that the embodied carbon "makes maintaining our historic building stock an important part of any carbon emissions reduction strategy" - lol.

 

[Popparand]

Planning is unbelievably slow. We purchased a property with some land at the end of last year. The plan was to demolish the existing late Victorian brick cottage (single skin walls, no proper floors, in very poor state of repair) and replace it with a Passivhaus zero carbon highly insulated house. We submitted a 'pre-app' on the advice of the architect and the response has just come back. They have declared the cottage a 'non-listed heritage asset' and said that we would not be allowed to demolish it.

So our plans appear to be scuppered - the cottage really is just a pile of bricks with a leaky roof just about standing up by itself, but the Conservation Officer has taken a liking to it and wants us to keep it. He/she even said that the embodied carbon "makes maintaining our historic building stock an important part of any carbon emissions reduction strategy" - lol.

Unbelievable! A lot of these old buildings were jerry-built and are totally unfit for purpose. Beats me while the conservation brigade are so intent on maintaining these old wrecks. They have no architectural merit whatsoever and replacing them with something sympathetic to the surroundings with proper insulation is a no-brainer to any rational mind.

 

[pargyle]

So our plans appear to be scuppered - the cottage really is just a pile of bricks with a leaky roof just about standing up by itself, but the Conservation Officer has taken a liking to it and wants us to keep it. He/she even said that the embodied carbon "makes maintaining our historic building stock an important part of any carbon emissions reduction strategy" - lol.

Accidentally leave the gas on and forget to extinguish the candle you were using to see your way round ...

 

[Repwoc]

Accidentally leave the gas on and forget to extinguish the candle you were using to see your way round ...

No gas unfortunately but a similar thought had occurred.

 

[For want of a better word]

Accidentally leave the gas on and forget to extinguish the candle you were using to see your way round ...

You could plausibly blame a prospective 2nd home owner who was taking a "look around"!

( One such stopped, fined, and sent home by Devon & Cornwall constab. on the A30... said their trip was not an essential journey... had travelled 200 miles from London!!!) ( Radio Cornwall yesterday)

Chons da

 

[pargyle]

No gas unfortunately but a similar thought had occurred.

One of those large calor cylinders that you would need to heat the place to drive out the damp ?

A pub landlord down here, some years ago, accidentally left the boat cooker gas on in his boat... he arrived back with a cigarette in his mouth, opened the hatch - the explosion fortunately blew him off the boat and into the water and he was shaken but not hurt .. the boat and one next to it were totally destroyed by the explosion and subsequent fires.

 

[Repwoc]

Unbelievable! A lot of these old buildings were jerry-built and are totally unfit for purpose. Beats me while the conservation brigade are so intent on maintaining these old wrecks. They have no architectural merit whatsoever and replacing them with something sympathetic to the surroundings with proper insulation is a no-brainer to any rational mind.

Yes it is cheaply constructed, tiles-on-mud floors downstairs and of course no damp proof course. I got a quote to have the floors dug out and replaced with DPM + insulation + concrete and injection of DPM into the walls and it came to £15k. Realistically, if we were to renovate it we would remove all the internal walls then do the floors and re-configure the existing space + extend it as much as possible; the cost would be ~£200k-£250k assuming no other nasties come to light, so comparable with a new build. One of the gable walls is dodgy and the chimney is noticeably leaning outwards, so even the shell needs major work. There is no way to make it thermally efficient (in the Passivhaus sense) of course, so it's always going to be high emissions and expensive to heat - the conservation officer omitted to mention future emissions in his/her analysis.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

You could plausibly blame a prospective 2nd home owner who was taking a "look around"!

( One such stopped, fined, and sent home by Devon & Cornwall constab. on the A30... said their trip was not an essential journey... had travelled 200 miles from London!!!) ( Radio Cornwall yesterday)

Chons da

Had a similar case with us over the Bank Holiday police had set up checkpoints at Carmarthen to challenge any Pembrokeshire bound second homers, stopped one, ticket issued and sent back up the A48 with a flea in their ear, but they thought they'd be clever and turned off into a side road and carried on their way to Pembrokeshire via the back roads.
When they got to their holiday home, they had just put the ketttle on for a smug cup of tea when there was a Knock on the door - the policeman had cottoned on to their stunt and had made his way to greet them with yet another fine and an escort out of the county

 

[Ian123]

Not sure why your so smug I bet that English girlfriends still in the back shed

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Not sure why your so smug I bet that English girlfriends still in the back shed

or under maybe

 

[Swarm]

Had a similar case with us over the Bank Holiday police had set up checkpoints at Carmarthen to challenge any Pembrokeshire bound second homers, stopped one, ticket issued and sent back up the A48 with a flea in their ear, but they thought they'd be clever and turned off into a side road and carried on their way to Pembrokeshire via the back roads.
When they got to their holiday home, they had just put the ketttle on for a smug cup of tea when there was a Knock on the door - the policeman had cottoned on to their stunt and had made his way to greet them with yet another fine and an escort out of the county

How many deaths does it take before the penny drops for these morons?

Around here they think 'family unit' means all their relatives, guy next door is busy working on the house so the grand parents look after the baby. Nice weather, they strolled up with the little one in a push chair.

 

[Repwoc]

Planning is unbelievably slow. We purchased a property with some land at the end of last year. The plan was to demolish the existing late Victorian brick cottage (single skin walls, no proper floors, in very poor state of repair) and replace it with a Passivhaus zero carbon highly insulated house. We submitted a 'pre-app' on the advice of the architect and the response has just come back. They have declared the cottage a 'non-listed heritage asset' and said that we would not be allowed to demolish it.

So our plans appear to be scuppered - the cottage really is just a pile of bricks with a leaky roof just about standing up by itself, but the Conservation Officer has taken a liking to it and wants us to keep it. He/she even said that the embodied carbon "makes maintaining our historic building stock an important part of any carbon emissions reduction strategy" - lol.

At last we have planning permission to demolish the old crock and build a new house. We commissioned a couple of reports from a heritage consultant (ex Historic England) and a structural surveyor which basically rubbished the conservation officer's claims and backed our view that the building was in a decrepit state. The conservation officer then tried to claim that the building had value because of its simplicity - previously it was because of its 'architecture and evident history', although no evidence of history was provided. In the end, the conservation officer didn't comment on our planning application which led to several months of delay in the planning process. In the end the council made the decision without heritage advice.

In the meantime the costs of materials have rocketed and the price to build the new house has increased by ~£40k.

 

[Erichalfbee]

At last we have planning permission to demolish the old crock and build a new house.

Well that’s excellent news.
I’m very envious.
Will we see you on Grand Designs?

 

[Repwoc]

Will we see you on Grand Designs?

Not if I can help it.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Not if I can help it.

so there's hopes that the project is realistic then - and you haven't more money than sense

 

[Repwoc]

and you haven't more money than sense

When we embarked on this project: we never imagined that the planning permission process could be so stressful and drawn out. Everyone we spoke to said there shouldn't be a problem with our plan, assuming a well designed replacement building and reasonable size etc., but one individual (conservation officer) at the council just seemed to be hell bent on stopping us from doing what we wanted to do and was apparently deaf to rational reason. At one time I was convinced we had sunk our life savings into what had become the most expensive white elephant in the country. When the planning was granted, the relief was enormous.

Neither did we envisage that costs for building materials would increase so much. In Autumn 2019 when we decided to buy we were still in the EU, there was still a year of 'transition period' and no one had heard of covid-19, ie things were pretty stable. Two years on and here we are. The new build will be financed by selling our current home and although house prices have also gone up there will still be quite a large gap for us to plug and I'm not sure where the extra cash is going to come from.

I think we might be able to jump ship, sell up with planning permission and maybe break even. Or we could wait for a year or two to get some cash out of my pension lump sum. Or maybe get a loan and pay it off when I get my pension. Not sure.

SWMBO says we're not doing it again.

 

[user 20297]

When we embarked on this project: we never imagined that the planning permission process could be so stressful and drawn out. Everyone we spoke to said there shouldn't be a problem with our plan, assuming a well designed replacement building and reasonable size etc., but one individual (conservation officer) at the council just seemed to be hell bent on stopping us from doing what we wanted to do and was apparently deaf to rational reason. At one time I was convinced we had sunk our life savings into what had become the most expensive white elephant in the country. When the planning was granted, the relief was enormous.

Neither did we envisage that costs for building materials would increase so much. In Autumn 2019 when we decided to buy we were still in the EU, there was still a year of 'transition period' and no one had heard of covid-19, ie things were pretty stable. Two years on and here we are. The new build will be financed by selling our current home and although house prices have also gone up there will still be quite a large gap for us to plug and I'm not sure where the extra cash is going to come from.

I think we might be able to jump ship, sell up with planning permission and maybe break even. Or we could wait for a year or two to get some cash out of my pension lump sum. Or maybe get a loan and pay it off when I get my pension. Not sure.

SWMBO says we're not doing it again.

We've just got planning permission in principle after a thirty month fight with the planners. Although, like you, in reality the argument was with one official person who had an axe to grind....or not. he is the Arboricultural Officer who was "disappointed" that we had already removed some mishapen and dieased trees. Once he had forced us to spend an unnecessary additional £1500 on reports and surveys he expressed his "satisfaction".

We're now faced with the same 30% increase in the costs of building materials as we begin the real work with an architect.

 

[Repwoc]

Once he had forced us to spend an unnecessary additional £1500 on reports and surveys he expressed his "satisfaction".

Sounds familiar. We spent ~£2.5k on reports and surveys to counter the conservation officer's claims and statements from the pre-app advice and then he didn't bother to comment on our planning application. I think some of them are just trying to justify their own existence and like to exercise their power.