So I'm still in the process of trying to complete on this land, and I am only just getting to understand the issues and problems of the Local Planning authority system. The main problem being it is unbelievably inefficient and disorganized. How long have we been building houses in this country, you'd think that there would be a better way of doing things by now.
At the moment I am knee deep in the toils of contamination reports, and what a nightmare it all is. My solicitor's report has detailed that the land should be described as contaminated, yet the actual searches say not. And even then, there is a requirement apparently for all residential planning applications to have something called a PPS23 report done, which is essentially a detail site history check, soil samples and ground survey. This is of course to ensure that people who inhabit the properties in the future do not suffer the same debilitating and unfortunate fate as the current owner, that being a completely normal plot of land. which is after all just someones garden. Ridiculous!
This report is going to cost at least £1000, talk about your all time unexpected and completely unnecessary costs. The thing is as well, these type of reports exist for only one reason, to find problems, so I dread to think what problems this is going to unearth, (no pun intended) Hopefully once this is clarified I'm hoping that there won't be anymore holdups, as I really want to get cracking on this project. It's delay, after delay.
On a massive positive note however, I managed to side step my completely inefficient planning officer and speak directly to the duty officer about my proposed plans. (She was a nervous and jittery young girl) Basically all is looking good and positive, so I'm really pleased about that, as this is a pretty big step towards the success of this project!
