Planning projects in your neighbourhood can directly affect you in many ways. Sometimes this can lead to compensation, at other times you can make comments and object to planning projects, allowing you to influence decisions made on planning applications in your area.
Planning Projects And Your Community
New buildings, developments, extensions and other planning projects have an enormous impact on your community and your quality of life.
In practice, this means that there need to be safeguards in place to help protect your quality of life and your community. We are experts in planning law, and can help you use these safeguards to your advantage, preserving what you love about your community and neighbourhood.
Objecting To Planning Projects
Planning objections can be complicated. The basic mechanism for making a planning objection is simple, but making an objection with the highest chance of success will involve knowing exactly what you should include in your planning objection, and extra steps you can take to maximise your chances of success. If you're interested in having the best chance of succeeding with your objection, Kingsley Smith Solicitors have the experience and drive to help you achieve your goals proactively.
Read our reviews to find out how we've helped our clients object to planning projects.
Objecting To Planning Projects On Environmental Grounds
Objecting to planning projects on environmental grounds is one of the more routes you can take that is most likely to succeed in protecting areas of your neighbourhood or community that you particularly like and admire. For example, planning projects near Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty or with the potential to harm rare wildlife may still go ahead if the relevant issues aren't highlighted.
Green belt areas are intended to protect certain areas from becoming overly developed, and thirteen percent of England's land is classified as green belt land. However, these areas are not permanently protected, and developers can sometimes get permission to begin planning projects within green belt areas. Planning laws can make it easier or harder to build and develop in green belt areas, but ultimately if a particular part of a green belt area is special to you then you will need to object.
Compulsory Purchase Orders, Blight Notices And Purchase Notices
Sometimes work carried out by a government authority causes harm to your property's value, or means that an authority seeks to purchase your house.
Compulsory purchase orders, blight notices and purchase notices can all be fought or turned to your favour in the right hands. Contact a planning expert to ensure that you get the best possible result.
Rights To Light And Private Nuisance Compensation
Most neighbours are wonderful, but sometimes neighbours can deprive you of your rights or create a private nuisance.
Rights to light ensure that houses which have always had access to a certain amount of light (strictly speaking, a certain amount of visible sky) have the right to continue to enjoy a certain amount of light. You might be able to get compensation or even an order to undo the damage caused by a development if you choose to protect your right to light.
Private nuisances are cases where the defendant has caused an issue with your ability to enjoy the land, and can include the creation of noise, smells, or even physical invasion of your land.
Judicial Review
Judicial reviews must be made as quickly as possible. A judicial review is a review, by a court, of a decision made by a public body – such as might be made by a local authority in a planning permission application. The merits of a judicial review vary from case to case, so for a personal assessment of your chances for success please contact us directly with the pertinent details.
Restrictive Covenants
Restrictive covenants can limit how much you can get out of your property. Kingsley Smith Solicitors can help negotiate or otherwise deal with restrictive covenants, so you can get back to getting the very most out of your land or property.
Bad Neighbours
In a majority of cases good communication can resolve neighbourly disputes. In more complex cases, or a case where your neighbour refuses to back down over an unreasonable demand or imposition, this might not be possible.
As well as the issues outlined above, issues to do with your neighbours such as boundary disputes and party walls can be extremely time-consuming and expensive without the expertise required to negotiate and resolve these planning disputes quickly and cleanly.
With planning expertise on your side, though, these issues can be resolved with a minimum of fuss and ambiguity. We can tell you about your chances of achieving your goals, the best way to go about achieving them, and anything that you could do that would be really helpful on top of your immediate planning goals.
Can We Help You?
Maintaining your property, your neighbourhood and your community is important, and our supportive team can help you find a practical solution to your planning problems. Get in touch online or by phone for more information and to discuss your current situation.
Please call us on 01634 811 118, complete our online enquiry, or email our planning law UK expert Nicholas Kingsley-Smith.