Further information requested on planning permission

Hi there,

Just hoping that someone out there might have experience in this area, basically i had a pre planning months ago with a certain county council i presented the designs of a dormer house to the planner and apart from a few minor tweaks they agreed with the design of the house, i made the changes that were asked of me and submitted them for planning now three months later on the day that the decision for planning was due i have recieved a letter in the post stating that they will only allow me build a bungalow, have i any come back at alll on this and the fact that they have wasted my time and money in submitting something that i was never going to be granted after they initiallly said that it all appeared to be ok.

Thanks for your help,
Regards,

Not so Jolly man!

unfortunately, preplanning meetings do not mean anything and are generally a waste of time. when liaising with planners you need to speak a person with sufficient authority , ie the senior planner (not a senior executive planner) because they make the decisions.

did you get planning or additional information or a refusal?

A lot of time they just put a FI request because they havent had time to look at the application properly so they are giving themselves time.
You should now try & arrange a meeting between you, your architect and the planner to discuss this issue. Is there anything in the county development plan regarding design of houses? What style are the majority of the houses in the area of the proposed house like.
I am in the process of drafting my response to FI request. I think that a lot of people just panic & throw back any sort of response. I have read the county development plan extensively & quoted it to support my arguments - they can't argue against that. I have taken loads of pictures of houses in the area showing that mine is similar in design to many of the tradional houses of the area etc.
Also go to your local TD & ask him to discuss your application with the planner.

At the end of the day if they won't budge & this is the only thing stopping the application then you may have to change your plans but fight them on it first

I got a request for further information, but this request basically states that i have to have a single story dwelling and a roof pitch of no more than 30 degrees, this will mean that i will have to redesign the whole house plus the fact that the dormer i had planned was 3000sqft and 5 bedrooms i feel it will be extremely difficult to achieve this with a bungalow, even in the pre planning meeting i presented photographs of the surrounding houses its not a very built up area and the two houses closest to me one is a dormer and the other a two story. Gave the planner a quick ring this morning and she said it has to be single story because it is an elevated site! As i had it designed the back of the field which the house was in would have been at a higher level than the ridge of the roof anyway and the house was set into it! I dunno what to do now as it is a great site with lovely sea views and i dont want to loose it but we always wanted to have an upstairs!