Planning Permission Granted with added "condition"

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Hello

I am new to this, after scrolling through many forums over the last 6 months and reading other people's advice I thought I would chance at seeing people's advice/experience on our own current planning situation and it would be greatly appreciated. I apologise in advance if this seems long winded.

Background - we applied at the start of August to build a two storey extension to our end of terrace house dimensions going away from the house 3 metres and the length being 4 metres thus providing us with an extra bedroom and better size kitchen with dining area for our family as it is a tight fit at the moment! Aswell as being end of terrace we are also the corner plot so have a much larger than average back garden also. We spoke to immediate neighbours before submitting plans so as to be courteous and both agreed it will not effect them at all as it is good distance from both their gardens and they were happy and we assured we would keep them in the loop of comings and goings of works and machinery. So it came as a surprise to get an objection on the last day for objections from a house to the rear of our property. These neighbours are relatively new they bought the house little over a year ago. Polite enough we have seen them within the community and they have spoken and seem very neighbourly. In there objection they listed that we would be encroaching on there privacy being able to overlook there back garden and they also raised the issue of the fence that borders our garden and theirs and stated we don't keep it in a sufficient state of repair and that already effects there privacy from us.

To say we were gobsmacked is an understatement. Other than being an old fence that is weathered all panels and posts are sturdy with a couple of slats minorly dislodged due to THEM damaging it when they had garden works done on moving in. They had also flattened an area for a shed and piled muck and debris behind it damaging the bottom of one of our panels further and crushing some of my bedding plants. However nevertheless the fence is a civil matter and nothing to do with the material of planning it just seemed they have used this as an excuse to try and back there objection further.

The planning officer in charge was reccomending approval but stated as there has been objection the planning will have to go before a planning comittee for a decision. A week before the meeting we recieved a phonecall stating that if we agreed to have the bedroom window on the extension as partially obscured that would delegate our planning permission without the need of attending the comittee meeting. We reluctantly agreed to end the stress and permission has now been granted.

However.... (sorry this is so long!) With all this putting us back as much as it has we are now at the point where we cannot start until after Christmas now anyway. We have worked hard to get to this point to provide a bigger more comfortable house for our children and as the extension is not excessive by any means we do not see why we should have to have a frosted window in our little girls bedroom. The property with objections house will be 22 metres away from our house when our works are finished. Three other properties in our close have mirror image extensions to the one we plan to have without a frosted bedroom window in site. So we are now at the point of using our "free go" with the removal of the condition of the glazed window to the bedroom. We are aware if the neighbours feel so strongly they will object again but we have been told by a few people at the planning meeting we stand good chance of having it approved. Does anybody have any idea or experienced similar? It's so stressful and un needed we tried speaking to the neighbours and explaining but they did not want to know and were quite passive aggressive and just kept stating that they have there rights to object.

Has anyone ever had experiences of similar?? We don't want it turning around to bite us in the bottom and lose out completely.

Thank you for taking the time to
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I see your problem - a few comments

The state of the fence is not relevant to the planning application - so ignore all these comments - they are distractions.

Your distance at 22m should be accepted as not providing excessive overlooking for a residential area - it is very surprising that the council is so tetchy about this issue?

If there are clear precedents in your close then you can and should go for clear-glass in the bedroom window - you would need to unwind what you have said to the council and be ready to argue at appeal if the council refuses the application. The appeal process might take another 6 months - so don't be in any hurry to start works.
 
Thank you so much for your response. This is what has made us more adamant to proceed with pushing for the clear glazing the fact being many people we have spoke to, including trades coming and going for quotes have shown surprise at the fact they are trying to impose the condition of a frosted window. It is just nice to hear others views on the situation and the internet and these forums is a wonderful tool to do so. We have waited 8 years of saving for this opportunity so we are going to dig our heels in I think and wait it out through all the processes. Thanks again
 
Does the new bedroom window overlook the neighbour's property where previously they were not overlooked at all? or did the existing first floor windows already overlook?

If the latter you could argue that there is no increased loss of privacy. If the former you might struggle.
 
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Hello thanks for your reply. Yes there are currently two bedroom windows and a landing window looking directly out into them and you can see there whole garden anyway. It is literally a case of moving the same bedroom window 3 metres out and we are losing the landing window.
 
This is what you do .... you put plain glass in.

The council wont ever bother with such a triffling matter
 
lol the thought of putting a stained glass window with some choice words and a middle finger symbol at present is even more appealing than a clear glass believe you me! I just feel with the attitude of the neighbours and there stubborn approach to us trying to talk them they will have a checklist and be first in line to tell tales if we don't abide by "their" condition of frosted glaze.
 
Do you mean the stick on? I did suggest this (with your suggestion in mind) and they said it wouldn't suffice it would have to be a frosted glaze integrated in the glass
It makes it even more laughable the same council have just built 72 houses around the corner on the site of an old school, packet like tinned sardines with no privacy in mind. I'm sure they must all be able to watch each other's teles they are that close. Yet they are being so trivial about this
 
Yes I do... but I wouldn't have mentioned this.

Get a self adhesive 'fancy' pattern one from ebay... cheap. They won't be able to tell.

Failing that, buy a sheet of the cheapest patterned glass, fix to the inside, get signed off, then remove it at your leisure.
 
This is what a few have mentioned even get the glass for arguments sake then remove it to clear at later date we will have fitted blinds anyway aswell. Lol we just seem to have no luck whatsoever and would be Sod's law we would be the ones they get the scummy daily mail to do a story on us on or something they seem so petty
 
Mr Chibs are you talking from experience by the way? Just wondering as we are new to this and don't know if it is for arguments sake and after the build is signed off and we changed it would the council have bigger fish to fry rather than worrying about our window? Thanks
 
Hello thanks for your reply. Yes there are currently two bedroom windows and a landing window looking directly out into them and you can see there whole garden anyway. It is literally a case of moving the same bedroom window 3 metres out and we are losing the landing window.

So appeal the condition. It sounds like the planning officer was just trying to appease an objector and it appears to be unreasonable. Check the local planning policies first, hopefully the relevant ones are quoted in the planning officer's report. Although to be honest the policies are usually so vague and ambiguous you can interpret them any way you like. I did an appeal the other day and during my research I found an identical example to this that was allowed at appeal. I'll try to find it and give you the inspector's wording.
 
No, but if it's a quick compromise to get your extension built, then perhaps it's worth it.

Would be terrible once complete, those pesky kids accidentally smashed 'the' frosted window, whilst playing with their catapult:sneaky: and you had to hastily replace with clear!
 

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