school next door extending..

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shootingstar

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Just got phone call informing me the school next door are submitting plans to extend. apparently the extension is going to come right to my ditch at the side of the house. This is not my issue. Im all for the local school extending etc.

am i allowed to see the plans? is there anyway i can stop them working Saturdays & Sundays? im far from a grouch i promise. im always a really nice person. its just the last time they worked on the school the builders were in there all weekend long hammering and banging. machines going all weekend. oh i dont think i want that again.

Dont want to call into the principal just yet. I`d like to see the plans first to confirm the phone call today.
Can you advise me the best steps to take on this please?
 
If the agent/architect acting on behalf of the school/board of management has lodged a planning permission with the local planning office, then you can go in and look at them in the planning office. you can also request copies, at a reasonable cost.
you can then make a submission (observation/objection) on payment of a fee of €20 within 5 weeks of the application being made. you can note your concerns here.
 
shootingstar said:
its just the last time they worked on the school the builders were in there all weekend long hammering and banging. machines going all weekend. oh i dont think i want that again.
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In general, schools (and parents!!) will want to schedule maintenance work outside of school hours in order to avoid disruption to classes and health & safety issues for the kids.
 
shootingstar, was the previous weekend work maintenance or another extension? If the extension is a sizeable job, then they are more likely to schedule it for school holiday time when there'll be several weeks to complete the job. I've seen pre-fabs delivered to local schools here and they've taken place during the school holidays rather than a weekend.
 
Something like this will almost certainly require planning permission. This will involve a site notice going up, at which stage you can go into the council's planning department and examine the plans.

From what I've observed, most planning permisions have conditions attached to them restricting the times that work can be carried out (from memory, Mon. to Friday daytime only, possibly Sat. morning).
 
hi thanks for the replies.

the previous work that was carried out was new surfacing/groundwork around the school. There were at it during school hours to be fair but also right through the weekend.

walked next door to school last night no planning notices up anywhere. However, i rang the chiarman and gently voiced my concerns. He said that they had considered putting up a 2 storey extension on my side but someone said i`d most likely object. I informed him i would not object providing i had it in writing that they wouldnt carry out construction on weekends. He said he`d come back to me.

thanks for informing me i can view planning etc. i`ll defo be watching out for the notice going up and will have a look then.

I really dont want to be falling out with anyone so i`ll be treating this senario with mittins
 
But what if you ever want to sell. I know I wouldn't mind living next door to a school, even if it did cause traffic chaos. However, there isn't a hope in hell of me ever purchasing a house that had schoolrooms, so close, overlooking my property. Just something to think about.
 
TDON said:
But what if you ever want to sell. I know I wouldn't mind living next door to a school, even if it did cause traffic chaos. However, there isn't a hope in hell of me ever purchasing a house that had schoolrooms, so close, overlooking my property. Just something to think about.
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good point. not much traffic chaos. the parking is at the other side of the building. Its not a big school, more a small country school. there are trees in between my house and the school so i think the view of the extension would be minimal. (must further investigate that..).
While im all for extending for the locals and doing good, I really couldnt go through every weekend listening to machines and kango-hammers etc. I have a stressful job and enjoy my quiet weekends.
 
Ok, I know you don't want to put in an objection as initially (subject to seeing the plans of course) you don't have any problem with the build except for the noise that could be generated at the weekend. And I reckon most of the country would be with you on that. However, you may do something about it to ensure that it is written in as a condition on the grant for planning permission. You could make a submission as opposed to an objection. This means when granting the planning permission, they will have to take into consideration you concerns. This is the only thing I could find on a quick search and I know it's a different county, but you will get the idea of it.;


[broken link removed]
 
don't count on the planners taking your observations into consideration.we sunmitted an observation on a house in the neighbours garden and nothing we said was taken into consideration in the final planning grant but as soon as we did put in the observation the auctioneer applying for planning (it is his site) contacted us and called around to assure us all would be ok.. funny thing. can't seem to get hold of him now and it's been a good while..

you mention trees blocking the views of the new building.. are those trees yours or the schools.. our local school is being reroofed for the last year(really big job) and the builders have been working through out the school term but rarely at weekends.

even if the planning is submitted now and approved then the kids will be back at school when the permission comes through.
 
Although the term "objection" is generally used, strictly speaking there's no such thing: they're all called "observations". If you look at planning applications (they're all open to public viewing), you'll see they come in all shapes and sizes.

I'd agree with the last post that it's best to ensure the building hours gets written into any planning permission, rather than relying on the concil doing it. All it takes is a simple letter and a fairly nominal fee (€20?) to make an observation. If it were me, I'd make it as simple as possible, along the lines of:

"I strongly support the provision of new school facilities, but would ask that the concil include a condition on any permission granted that any building work be carried out during the daytime on week-days only".

I can't imagine anyone involved in making the application would find that anything but reasonable (remember that any observation is also open to public viewing).
 
therave said:
don't count on the planners taking your observations into consideration.we sunmitted an observation on a house in the neighbours garden and nothing we said was taken into consideration in the final planning grant .
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They have an obligation to consider all observations, but have no obligation to agree with them.

Planning decisions are supposed to be made on the basis of good planning: see the county development plan for the criteria used for each type of area (or zone). Certain things (such as overlooking or overshadowing, amount of open space left) will definitely be acted on (if valid); others such as "will devalue my property" or "will block my view" (you've no right to a particular view) won't.

Unfurtunatley, not everything is objective. If a decision goes against you, you always have the option of appealing to ABP.
 
ubiquitous said:
You obviously don't have kids yourself ;)
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i do actually ( 14 yr old ) and my OH has 2 (12yrs & 17yrs) we normally just keep them muzzled at the weekends.. ;)

im glad to have logged this thread on AAM because its opened my eyes to what im entitled to view as regards planning etc. i now know what action is needed. Thanks for the replies. always appreciated xx

SS
 
ang1170..
our obsevation did not inculde house price devaluation or right to light but were actul about visual amenitiy and safety with regards to the boundry wall blocking the view of oncoming traffic et etc

ss good luck with it all,i agree that you should let them build the school,theya re lucky to have the funds,but you shoud not have to put up with the noise at weekends... how about you doa house swap with the principal while the building is going on
 
therave said:
ang1170..
our obsevation did not inculde house price devaluation or right to light but were actul about visual amenitiy and safety with regards to the boundry wall blocking the view of oncoming traffic et etc
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Didn't mean to imply those were the ground on which you were objecting: I was just using them as examples of things that wouldn't be acted on.

I'd agree with you that they (well, Fingal in the case I know about) can be lax in considering traffic safety: I was involved in a case that included exactly the same objection of a wall blocking the view of traffic, which was also ignored. I can only assume that this is because they don't necessarily do a site visit, and the hazard mightn't be obvious from the submitted plans (I could be wrong on this).

Visual amenity is kind of subjective, so I wouldn't be too surprised about that one.

The system isn't perfect, but it does try to be fair to all concerned.
 
therave said:
ang1170..

ss good luck with it all,i agree that you should let them build the school,theya re lucky to have the funds,but you shoud not have to put up with the noise at weekends... how about you doa house swap with the principal while the building is going on
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;) ya i`ll actually mention that and see the reaction. the Chairman is calling to me tonight for a chat so ill see how that goes.

just to clarify - if they argue with me as regards weekend work will happen then yes ill be objecting. my other neighbour agreed with me on this. Poor old dear said it was too noisy the last time for her also.
 
Even if they agree to not doing work at the week-ends, I'd still put in an observation to the planning application. It'll have no bearing on whether or not the permission is granted, but it should ensure the condition about not working at week-ends is made.

That way, if things go wrong in the future (i.e. they do start woking at the week-end), you have something to back you up other than a verbal agreement with the school.
 
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