We met Today with Al from PPS, our planning consultant. Unfortunately it wasn’t a full team to met Al at Waterhall Cottage, but in some ways I think that made it easier as it was just Abi and myself present to question and suggest ideas.
I think I did my typical thing and was so eager to get my ideas and thoughts over I didn’t listen too well to begin with, but once I’d calmed down (this meeting had been going through my head for what seemed like forever) I think it went pretty well.
First things first, it appears any hope of building two new homes on the site are out of the window, not worth pursuing, dead in the water, out of the question, and gone. We suspected as much, and were ready for Al to say that, and looking at the site gave him no reason to think otherwise. So the plan now would be to see if there’s a way to play by the book and get two homes here, instead of one rather messy home/office as we have now.
There’s several options open. Apparently a change in planning law a couple of years back has made this type of development much trickier than it once was. Hamlets such as ours, which fall outside the main village envelope, once didn’t have as strict policies applied to them as “open countryside”, meaning small scale in-fill developments such as we would like to do were much easier previously than they are now.
However, because the building is currently primarily registered for B1 business use, that could work in our favour. Not in the terms we originally had considered, that being changing to residential and highlighting the reduction in traffic, noise and such, but rather that it is apparently easier to get permission for businesses than it is for residential in countryside and/or greenbelt land.
Anyway, we gave Al a guided tour of the house and the gardens, entrances, allotments and such, and explained what we’d like to achieve, and also how open minded we are about how to approach things. We want to live here, long term, so we’re happy to play a long game if needs be to get where we would like to be. We’re not looking to develop to sell, to make a quick buck, this is an attempt to set up family homes in the village we already consider home.
Based on this, although things don’t seem overly positive and wonderful, I get the feeling that Al and Co. at PPS could well be the ones to look at the rules, look at what we have and where we want to go, and work out a strategy that will hopefully get us at least some of what we’d like to achieve.
Anyway, despite Al’s very down to Earth attitude and strong reminders that whatever he comes back with, at the very best it’s going to be an uphill struggle, I can’t help feeling more positive about our prospects Today than I have for a long time! Al will “be in touch”, don’t know when, we’re in no rush. So again it’s back to twiddling thumbs, saving money and worrying about what the worst case scenario could be.