Extending houses and planning permission etc

[Kumagoro]

Where my parents live a neighbour who lives in front of them... who will be
hence forth known as knob jockey, has got planning permission to build an
extension.

Now knob jockey designed it himself so it looks rubbish but the morons at
the planning dept have given it the OK. Nobody really has a problem with
him extending the house, its just that its a terrible design which looks cack.
(he has a chimney coming out the one story extension but its a two story house, so its going to look weird)

ANYWAY, in the planning permission it says that no trees will be cut down.
yet he has already cut one down on the border of knob jockeys land. Thing is that the trees are a part of the area and are all along the road.
Now he is demanding that 3 trees which belong to our neighbour be cut down as the root might undermine his foundations. The trees are on a bank which surely drink a lot of the water there, also the area suffers a lot from subsidence.

Does anyone know what is likely to happen or what can be done to stop the trees being cut down?

Why are new neighbours so annoying.

[Howard]

If the planning permission says he can't cut trees down, then he can't cut trees down.

I'm not sure if he can cut his own trees down, but I'm pretty sure it means he can't meddle with other people's trees.

[Kumagoro]

I think he is a builder so he knows how the system works... no doubt now they
have given him permission they will let him keep modifying it after he has done it.

[Howard]

Well once he's cut trees down you can't exactly stick them back up. Lol.
He sounds like a bit of a berk anyway

[5cupa]

simple ring up your council planning permission and tell them what he;s upto before its too late

[Swafe]

if you cut down a tree in your garden, isnt it your choice not the councils ?

[Flash]

didnt your folks get a letter of the council you have the right to turn down the permission request if its unreasonable

[Dakaras]

if you cut down a tree in your garden, isnt it your choice not the councils ?

He cannot touch anyones trees other than his own. Tough if he wants a neighbours trees down due to undermining then he needs to get building inspectors / surveyors in.
He Cannot touch ANY!! Tree including those on his own land if they have preservation orders on them so find that out.

However saying all that if the blokes a burk and he chops em down the penalties are not that great iirc

Good luck

[Flash]

silver birch will cost you £5k

[Swafe]

sorry, i read that totally wrong, i thought he wanted planning permission to cut his own tree down silly me

you can cut the tree down if you want, but theres no way he can demand you cut it down

[Andyr]

Im not speaking as a experienced planner but I work in the local development Control offices for my area and in my 2 years of being there i have picked up a thing or 2 about planning rules and legislation.

didnt your folks get a letter of the council you have the right to turn down the permission request if its unreasonable

You have 3 months from the date of the permission to appeal to the secretary of state to overturn the planning permission if for any reason you feel its unjust.

Their is no way that your neighbor can demand that the trees belonging to another neighbor can be cut down, it is entirley the choice of the neighbor if he wishes to remove these trees but in the unlikely event that these trees, which I presume are between 2 houses and are providing privicy, are protected by a Tree Preservation Order (TPO), their will be no way that these trees can be removed.

As your are saying that he has already started to remove trees i suggest that you get on the phone to your local devlopment control offices and tell them this. They should resolve the issue for everybody concerned and maybe also overturn "knob jockeys" planning permission making it invalid.

Andy

[Atomic]

are protected by a Tree Preservation Order (TPO), their will be no way that these trees can be removed.

If the trees are covered by a preservation order he will be looking at a nice fine for cutting them down too.

Also if he cuts into the roots for your neighbours trees and in doind so damages the health of their trees he could be looking at legal action also. (we went through this when a neighbour built a garage and cut through a lot of the roots for a 40ft tree in our garden. A few months later it fell on his house, he tried to claim it was our fault and he was made to pay us because he had caused ill health to our tree.)

As various other people have said contact your local council planning office and explain the situation, they are good people and will explain what you need to do.

[Andyr]

If the trees are covered by a preservation order he will be looking at a nice fine for cutting them down too.

It is unlikely that trees in a residential area would be protected by a TPO as these are generally reserved for tress which are 2X as old as your grannie or have a significant interest to the local area.

[Kumagoro]

OK a bit more info from me(thanks for the info by the way)

He has been granted planning permission even though my parents and neighbour
objected. Mainly to do with how it looks, as he did the plans himself its a bit crap
and not like other houses in the area. The houses are probably 20 years old so it
seems doubtful that they are protected it seems from the other post. The thing is
the trees are everywhere along the road so its a feature of the area and makes it
look pretty nice.

My dad is going to contact the council but they dont open again till the 4th so its been about a week since he cut it down. The neighbours trees, all three are silver birch. they do provide some privacy i guess and more so when the extension is built perhaps.

If my parents and the neighbours next door do object to these plans in this 3 month period of being granted what will happen?

all your thoughts and help is really appreciated.

[Flash]

ahh well thats 15k he now owes

[RVF500]

We had a similar thing. Though opposite. A guy bought a pub next to our small court of 4 houses. He applied for planning permission to turn it into a private home. We got letters and decided not to oppose it as there are 4 pubs in a small village, few people used this pub as it was decaying and we were'nt going to get drunken fools howling at the moon at midnight anymore.

On the strength of this the guy started work early, council found out and recinded his planning permission. Petty jealousy on their part really. It was going through they just wanted their bit of control. He posted petitions through our doors and asked if we had any objections and if not would we respond to his petition. Which we all did. The council relented and allowed him to carry on.

My point is that you can make a difference if you band together. Judging by the way he is treating your neighbour there will be no problem getting them on side. So as well as informing the council what he is doing regarding the trees I'd suggest getting together with the other neighbours and approaching the council as a group.