A Plot on the Landscape

Saturday 3rd March our copy of the Pre-Planning enquiry pack arrived from Nicolas Tye Architects.

We had a quick read through it before going over it together with Dawn and Lewis on Monday. The presentation and pack style seem pretty good, but as people who’ve never done this before we’re not overly confident that it’s quite what we want it to be. That is, we’re not sure it’s “hard sell” enough, and appears to be offering two of our compromise options as options, rather than what we really wish to achieve.

The first outline plan shows the two new houses as semi-detached, with Waterhall Cottage largely unaffected, the second shows Waterhall Cottage completely removed and all houses in a row with a single story garage. What we really want is two detached new properties, and a refresh of the current property.

We’re also slightly concerned it over emphasis the flood plain that never floods, and doesn’t promote enough our desired to build modern homes that are as environmentally friendly as possible in terms of construction and long term running.

I’m going to call Bethany at Nicolas Tye in the morning to try and arrange a get together and chat, as although overall we like the pack and the approach Nicolas Tye are taking, we’re not delighted with this, and I certainly feel it would be better to chat face to face to get over all the little concerns in one go, and make sure we’re all singing from the same hymn sheet.

I was hoping to scan in some of the pack, but I’ll hold off that until I’ve gone over our concerns with Bethany and/or Nic and have the final version we’ll be sending to the planning department.