An update on the process with our Hut application with East Lothian Council. I posted recently that we'd had an issue with the 30m2. It seems anything above that is subject to a higher payment so we reduced it to 29m2 to be on the safe side.
This was then followed by a bill for £248.04 because the council advertised in the local paper (unspecified). The letter from the council stated...
The application required to be advertised because either: 1. the application proposes a bad neighbour development 2. the development proposed in the application is a departure or potential departure from the development plan 3. the applicant was unable to give notice of the application to all owners/agricultural tenants of the land of the application site 4. of the need to give neighbour notification in respect of neighbouring land on which there are no premises.
When we asked which one they replied "the application proposed a bad neighbour development".
See link The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (Scotland) Order 1992 (legislation.gov.uk). Amongst the more interesting examples are: the construction of buildings for use as a public convenience; casino; music hall; Turkish or other vapour or foam bath; a zoo; a slaughterhouse.
The council haven't explained which one we are but we're assuming (not always a smart thing to do) that we would come under :
8) the construction of buildings, operations, and use of buildings or land which will—
(a)affect residential property by reason of fumes, noise, vibration, smoke, artificial lighting, or discharge of any solid or liquid substance;
(b)alter the character of an area of established amenity;
(c)bring crowds into a generally quiet area;
(d)cause activity and noise between the hours of 8pm and 8am; and
(e)introduce significant change into a homogeneous area.
Anyone else come across this?
I reckon it's (b) and (e). Especially (e). Huts are surely a threat to homogeneity!
Hi, William, thanks for replying. Yeah, there's a lot of unfortunate stuff in the process. I'll pinch the phrase 'dark sky friendly and respect for nocturnal wildlife' for the document they've requested re woodland management :-)
I think this is part of the council's duty to inform neighbours about the development. You used to do this yourself, but councils now do it and charge you a fee. We paid around £200 for this too ( on top of the application fee).
Our hut application was advertised in the newspaper too. The reason being that that there were no immediate neighbours within 30metres of the construction site (hut in middle of wood) for them to notify direct.
"Bad neighbour" is an unfortunate choice of phrase but may just be the closest fit category. A hut in a wood is a big change for what was previously just a patch of land in a wood, so they may feel duty bound to do this.
It's just standard practice.
If someone did complain (doubtful) You could mitigate any concerns about noise, disruption etc by operating a "lights-out" policy; no noise (music, car arrivals, outdoor gatherings) or artificial lights after say 10pm. Say it will be "dark sky" friendly and respect nocturnal wildlife.
Hi, thanks, it's not so much a worry, it's the use of the phrase (which I appreciate is from planning policy). It was also that they did this without telling us, simply sent us a demand to pay. We've got permission now :-), just going to post an update...
We had to pay the fee for newspaper advertising as standard procedure during Covid related working practices so I don't think it's anything to worry about. At least you'll get to see copies of any objections that may get lodged. Hopefully, there won't be any. 😊 Good luck with it all. Keep us posted.