retrospective planning permission for a fence?

Joined
4 Apr 2021
Messages
17
Reaction score
2
Country
United Kingdom
Hi am new here and found this site online and hope that someone would have some advice as we have no experience of applying for planning permissions.

We put a fence up around our front garden (not high its just one metre) and an enforcement officer (who was nice about it) has told us verbally (not by letter) we need to apply for planning permission to keep it because when the street was built there was a restriction on the permission but the restriction he mentioned says:

"Notwithstanding the provisions of the Town and Country Planning General Permitted Development Order 1995 (or any order revoking and re-enacting that Order) no development shall be carried out on the site within the terms of Classes A B C D E F and G of Part 1 and Class A of Part 2 of Schedule 2 of the Order, without the prior consent of the Local Planning Authority"

Does "consent" mean a planning application? it seems a bit excessive just for a fence, a friend of ours has told us to try to not to apply for PP but negotiate with the Council but we dont know what to do. Most of the street has boundary hedges etc. Does anyone have any advice or experience so we know what to expect, we have never applied for planning permission before.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you.
 
Last edited:
Sponsored Links
It means that your permitted development rights were withdrawn when the original planning permission was approved for the building of your house. ALL development needs planning permission. Fences are normally covered by PD rights but you have none so you need to make a planning application. There is no negotiation, it's all about what is legal. A fence is either legal - i.e. has permission, or it's not. Make the application. The LPA would need a very special reason not to approve it.
 
(Not much help, but LPAs often withdraw rights on new developments to rake application fees in, as you are about to find out).
 
Sponsored Links
If this is new estate there may well be a covenant on the deeds preventing fences and walls around front gardens too, and if so this would be different to planning permission.

To maintain the style of a new development fences and walls are not permitted (and applications refused) for many years, until the character of the estate changes.

"Are there any other similar fences around?" would be your first consideration.
 
thank you for your help. we will have to apply. yes there is an example of another fence (ask the guy who lives there and he said had no complaints about it) which makes us feel that its a personal thing or someone being NIMBY about it.
 
If your house has a road beside it and the fence restricts the vision of drivers joining a main road then you will have to alter it.
 
I certainly would NOT apply until I had it in writing; and a timescale to adhere to. Any more approaches in person, I'd ask the enforcement guy if he had given his verbal advice to the other fence-builder.
 
thank you it is set back from the road nearly 2 metres as we thought about being able to see. The enforcement guy said he would need to contact the other fence owner because if he saw other examples of whats not allowed he has to act upon it, that is why i knocked on their door to talk about it because i did not want them to think i had complained over theirs because someone had complained about ours (because we are actually nice neighbours)!
 
Sorry to ask again......

update: we have 21 days to submit an application. I asked to book a pre-planning application visit but was told that it was "not appropriate action". We now feel out here all on our own. We have no idea how to submit an application or what would be acceptable to submit. We put the fence up as we thought we had PD rights (wrong advice from the solicitor who we think has been sacked as when we rang about it we were told she no longer works there). Now through no fault of our own we cant even get advice on what to submit, how is this fair?

We are currently trying to get advice from someone who submits applications on behalf of people, so the mistake by the solicitor is going to cost us vastly! Do you think if this process is going to take longer than 21 days it would be ok to ask for an extension of time to submit? and does anyone know of any similar applications for a fence in an open area that has been successful? we have been racking our brains to try and come up with a scheme that would be acceptable and are looking for ideas to pinch from those who have tread the path before us...

We have a need for the fence, when we adopted our dog we were told he needed to be securely enclosed in. We wouldn't have bought this house if the solicitor had done her job properly and told us we needed to apply for permission, without it its likely we would have to find somewhere else that is secure to live (due to tax reasons we couldnt even sell for quite a few years so will be left with no option but to rent it out, which we dont want to do)!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I thought we had moved to a nice area where there would no no wind up/heated exchanges, how do people go on with huge extensions when a fence causes so much agro? I asked the guy across the road about his fence and he said the neighbours never mentioned a word about it. Beginning to feel that we are jumping though hoops because our faces dont fit!
 
Just a thought? is it possible to book a pre-application advice session from another local authority nearby? does anyone know if this has been done before (questioning now EVERYTHING to make sure its a legal thing to do before doing it)!
 
Just a thought - have you spoken with the areas highways office?

They may be able to clarify the position about fences in your area. Certainly ought to be able to give you a plan of the highways (which does include paths) and boundaries in your road.
 

DIYnot Local

Staff member

If you need to find a tradesperson to get your job done, please try our local search below, or if you are doing it yourself you can find suppliers local to you.

Select the supplier or trade you require, enter your location to begin your search.


Are you a trade or supplier? You can create your listing free at DIYnot Local

 
Sponsored Links
Back
Top