Failed by council - fix or move?

[malcolm]

I am beginning to hate what my village is becoming. It was nice when I moved here but there are plans to build housing estates in what the conservation area appraisal describes as important green spaces (and says there is presumption against development). The parish council says there is nothing they can do as the local plan was rejected and a new local planning plan can't possibly be agreed before 2020 and in any case they get a bit of community infrastructure charge to pay for stupid stuff.

Most of all I like to run classic cars, and had an incredibly near miss when someone pulled out on me at the traffic calming which was put in last year and forces cars to drive unsighted onto the opposite carriageway also unsighted to the car they are about to crash into. I was driving a 1950s car built before they invented seatbelts and before they realised sharp edges just in front of the driver head were a bad idea. I have written to the council and the parish council, and have now bought a dash cam so my next of kin can sue the council should I actually die in a collision there, but I have brought the issue up before with no luck and don't fancy my chances this time despite the problem being bleedingly obvious.

I am really frustrated and have been in a very bad mood for a couple of weeks to the point of smashing stuff. I'm planning to call estate agents in and feel really stupid that I have done so much work on the house in lime and oak out of misguided love that won't make money back.

Anyone have any ideas how to deal with councils?

 

[mims&pip]

Sorry to hear about your near miss and frustrations with your council, Malcolm

Sadly, I think it's just the way things are going. I know that here our council weren't interested in the number of legitimate objections by residents when our new next door neighbour submitted a planning application to develop his non-listed (but like our own house, subject to an article 4 direction), conservation area house into a pair of semis. Despite our properties being two of only a handful described as being of "townscape merit", the council saw fit to approve the plans which will result in what is tantamount to a pair of newbuilds :roll:

There has also been a spate of large houses on huge plots being given the go-ahead to demolish and replace with gigantic 'trophy' homes, not to mention McCarthy & Stone buying up every available plot for retirement blocks - the most recent received dozens of objections from villagers, but still got the green light!

It would be very sad for you to give up on your project at this stage, but I can see why you're feeling this way. We still intend to sell in the not-too-distant future and have frequent days when we want to chuck in the towel and leave the area asap. Today was one of those for me, if not for Pip - he has warmed more to the area of late and unfortunately we both (sentimental idiots that we are!) feel an affinity for both house and garden, especially as the latter is looking so lovely at the moment.

Do you really think you'd make a loss if you sell at this stage? I know when we were doing our previous house and the rumbling road/house vibrating was getting to me, Pip advised that as the place was only half finished we'd probably lose money to sell as was. That was the SW though, I would have thought your location would have seen a rise anyway?

Good luck with whatever you decide.

Mims x

 

[Zebra]

It is the way of things. More houses will be built. Daft traffic calming measures will be put in. It's a jungle out there, but it will be the same wherever you go. At least we have our little bolt-holes, somewhere to retreat to, our characterful houses which love us for the care we are putting into them. Don't leave, just accept the world the way it is - accept the things you have no control over - and concentrate on making your little bit of it the way you want it to be.

 

[steveb]

I live in a hamlet of 9 cottages and an old farm. The farm (well, only a stable block and a barn really - it long lost all of it's land and it had no farmhouse) just got permission to be replaced with 4 trophy homes, each of which has a garage significantly bigger than my entire cottage.

The planners seemed to ignore inconveniences like "green belt" and accepted that the stable and barn was a "brownfield site" rather than an agricultural site, and hence ripe for development. It's happening everywhere and you can't seem to fight it, all you can do is accept it or move. Basically the only way to get full control is to own it..

 

[88v8]

I do feel for you.
This is what they call 'progress'.
It's the main reason I'm going to vote Out. There are too many people so we 'need' more housing, and there's too much traffic so we 'need' traffic-calming.

What we actually need is a smaller population so there will be no demand for more housing, and less traffic. Whilst in the EU there is no chance of either.

Where we lived previously, 30 years, there was more and more traffic. A manhole cover in the road clanked incessantly, we could never get anyone to come and repair it properly because that would have entailed closing half the road.
The level of traffic made it a nightmare getting in and out. To get my TR6 out, I had to put the Landy out in the road, then put the Trolley out in the road then put the TR6 out in the road, then drive the Trolley into the garage, then the Landy back onto the drive. Then when we got home in the TR6, reverse the process. Bad enough late at night, but when the traffic was heavy it was just a nightmare. Sometimes half an hour.

And the 'developers' had been sniffing around our large gardens for years.

There were other reasons for moving, leaving the house into which I'd put 30,000 hours of work, but the rising tide of 'progress' was a key factor.

After we moved, a year later the unspoilt 1920s bungalow next door, sitting on a third of an acre, was demolished and two huge detached houses built. Lucky I suppose it wasn't flats.

Where we are now, there is a housing development in build on farmland about a mile away, 2,000 houses authorised by that ranting Labourite Hazel Blears. We knew nothing about it, it was authorised in 2008, four years before we moved, so when the name came up in the searches we assumed it was a few houses in a Close and ignored it. The build is very slow. The country lane that runs through the 'estate' will not be destroyed for some years, the skylarks will not be evicted yet, the oaks with their daaaangerous acorns will not be lopped for some while, but each time we drive down that lovely lane with its ancient hedges I curse that d**ded woman and the immigrants Labour let in to boost their voting pool.

Traffic here is minimal. It's very quiet. At the moment. We can walk the quarter mile to the village down our lane and often see no cars.
But insulating yourself against the tide of 'progress is difficult.
People who have lived in our lane for years - 30-50 years, complain about the traffic. So that's another thing; when you stay put, you notice the adverse changes. When you move you accept things as they are, and then there are changes.

Councils are strapped for cash. They have perverse incentives to build houses, to house immigrants that no one wants.
PC members are endlessly frustrated about the level of bureaucracy in dealing with the County Council.

The CC has authorised a huge incinerator about a mile away. The Planning process was thoroughly corrupted. The only good thing is that it's near the huge housing development hehheh I hope it gases the whole lot of them.

The Highways dept, ahh, that tends to be a law unto itself. Our PC has endless trouble getting even the most bleedingly obvious maintenance done, let alone changes. A road near us where the pavement is chewed up by artics turning a corner where the radius is too sharp, plenty of room to change the corner but the Highways dept just resurfaced it as was.

So........ if you move all this idiocy will catch up with you.

Especially if Remain and Project Fear win on the 23rd.

Ivor

 

[plasticpigeon]

It is horrible to think that you have put a lot of work into something, for the joy to be taken away by forces outside of your control. I feel like that since the bastards that bought the house next to me basically smashed it to pieces and used foreign slave labour to build the most ramshakle and huge dormer extension you have ever seen, making it look like a shanty dwelling. They then used it as a cannabis farm. I was phoning the police for about 3 months about it. They only did something when I complained to my local MP about the lack of action by the authorities. It is now derelict and disintegrating, but the authorities do nothing, despite my constant badgering.

It seems that there are few places where you can escape from what you describe. At least you don't live in Birmingham. I want to leave and move somewhere quieter, preferably with lots of listed buildings or at least conservation areas, which will hopefully mean that what one buys into shouldn't change very much. I like the look of the Severn Valley but my other half will hear nothing of it. We don't need traffic calming where we live. The traffic is so dense that it rarely gets above a crawl.

 

[malcolm]

I wish they would add another vote to leave Central Bedfordshire council. It's a good point that if I did move it would be the same rubbish in a different place. We're in a conservation area - it doesn't make any difference, just means you need a bunch more consultants to write what you pay them to write to tick council boxes.

I can reduce the risk on the road by using my horn a lot more, though that will make life unpleasant for those living right beside these stupid traffic calming devices. I'm not a health and safety nut but it is frustrating to have no control over my own safety.

I would need to get through building regs for the change of use before the house would be mortgageable. But I have asked an estate agent around. If nothing I can go through plans and see if there is anything that would put people off buying it (aside from the traffic calming and the housing estate they want to build next door on a flood plain in the Conservation area).

 

[bobby spray]

Both your situations sound pretty awful. These are the reasons - among others I'm sure, that some of the more remote areas of Scotland are now inhabited by 'white settlers'. Twenty years ago you could buy a croft in the western isles for very little money. Nowadays you are talking serious cash as the home counties sell up, get out and buy in drove in places like Skye. I'm fine with it myself but some of the local not so enthusiastic as they are priced out of the market. Even the Atlantic gales don't put them off!

 

[mims&pip]

We're also looking for somewhere far less heavily populated preferably with several acres .......Wales perhaps, although that takes us even further away from family

Here our cash-strapped Labour-run council has just spent some 20m on refurbing their offices, yet has decided the village greens and verges can go five weeks without mowing due to necessary cuts!!!

Ivor, there was a lovely 1930s detached bungalow with large gardens near us that was demolished last year. Three 3500+ sq ft houses - admittedly fairly characterful considering - have gone up in its place. £800k each, which is relatively high for these 'ere parts.

As for conservation areas, PP - like I said our neighbour has just had planning approved to convert his detached 1850s house (with an article 4 for townscape merit) into two semi-detached houses. This includes various extensions and external alterations that will drastically alter its appearance. Currently it has fugly White UPVC windows and the home owner stated that the new Windows will match the current ones - yet the local plan thingy says houses in the conservation area should have replacement windows in timber......so why is the council not insisting on this? Before moving into the house - in fact prior to exchange - he not only tore down most of the trees without gaining permission, but erected an 8' fence on his side boundary where an alleyway adjoins his property.......also without permission

I guess he got the go-ahead to redevelop because it's creating two homes out of one, but why have conservation areas if people are allowed to do more or less what they like? We want to repaint our windows in a more period appropriate colour, but because of the article 4 will probably need to seek permission. If we are refused, I won't be responsible for my actions :shock:

Mims x

 

[Zebra]

Gosh, steady on everyone. Remember how vociferous political arguments can get on here!
A good old fashioned bout of the plague should sort it all out. Half the population, indiscriminately. Perhaps a random cull.

 

[Flyfisher]

Both your situations sound pretty awful. These are the reasons - among others I'm sure, that some of the more remote areas of Scotland are now inhabited by 'white settlers'. Twenty years ago you could buy a croft in the western isles for very little money. Nowadays you are talking serious cash as the home counties sell up, get out and buy in drove in places like Skye. I'm fine with it myself but some of the local not so enthusiastic as they are priced out of the market. Even the Atlantic gales don't put them off!

I've never quite understood the 'pricing locals out of the market' complaint. For every remote property bought at 'serious Home Counties prices' there is a local homeowner happy to take the money rather than sell for less to other locals. No one forces them to sell up to 'white settlers' do they? So, human nature I suppose.

As for EU immigration causing all our woes, what about the UK government recruitment drive in the West Indies back in the 1950s to find much needed workers for our growing public services? Well before we joined the EU, or EEC as it then was. I'm highly suspicious of simple solutions to complex issues and am reminded of a favourite quotation about the 'Middle East problem': 'if you think you have the solution then you don't understand the problem'. My feeling is that no one understands the problems because these things are too complex, chaotic and unpredictable. If there really was a simple solution, don't we think someone, somewhere would have found it by now?

 

[Flyfisher]

Gosh, steady on everyone. Remember how vociferous political arguments can get on here!
A good old fashioned bout of the plague should sort it all out. Half the population, indiscriminately. Perhaps a random cull.

Indeed. What with advanced medicine and peace breaking out all over the place we're making a right old mess of population control. :wink:

 

[mims&pip]

Both your situations sound pretty awful. These are the reasons - among others I'm sure, that some of the more remote areas of Scotland are now inhabited by 'white settlers'. Twenty years ago you could buy a croft in the western isles for very little money. Nowadays you are talking serious cash as the home counties sell up, get out and buy in drove in places like Skye. I'm fine with it myself but some of the local not so enthusiastic as they are priced out of the market. Even the Atlantic gales don't put them off!

As for EU immigration causing all our woes, what about the UK government recruitment drive in the West Indies back in the 1950s to find much needed workers for our growing public services? Well before we joined the EU, or EEC as it then was. I'm highly suspicious of simple solutions to complex issues and am reminded of a favourite quotation about the 'Middle East problem': 'if you think you have the solution then you don't understand the problem'. My feeling is that no one understands the problems because these things are too complex, chaotic and unpredictable. If there really was a simple solution, don't we think someone, somewhere would have found it by now?

Forgive me FF as I wasn't even born then and don't know a huge amount about the 1950s situation, but aren't we talking considerably smaller numbers of West Indian immigrants? Tens of thousands, spread over a decade or so as opposed to currently hundreds of thousands every year? Also, as a result of the Commonwealth surely they had more affiliation with the UK than many of today's immigrants? I just don't think the infrastructure is ever going to be able to cope until we build over every bit of remaining green belt etc :shock:

 

[Flyfisher]

Well I was only just born in the 50s so I'm not exactly working from memory.

You may well be right about smaller immigration numbers back then, but then the human population was a lot smaller as well, having TREBLED in my lifetime alone. All those people have got to live somewhere haven't they? "Not here they don't" is one response of course, but I suspect that's the road that leads us to live in the national equivalent of a 'gated community' currently favoured by the super rich to keep undesirables at bay.

Still, given that we're the 5th richest nation on the planet and that an income of around £25k puts one in the top 1% richest people on the planet (http://www.globalrichlist.net) then I guess we are the planetary 'super rich' so why not put up the barricades and sod everyone else? :roll:

I'm in no way trying to deny there are any problems, but they are big problems and they need big solutions (assuming there are solutions) with a bit of humanity in the mix.

 

[88v8]

We are the most crowded country in Europe.

We already did the 'humanity' thing.
The world's sad refugees are not our problem, but the overcrowding created by immigration and the immigrant birthrate is most certainly at the heart of many UK problems.
Each of these unaccompanied child refugees the BBC is so fond of bleating about costs £50k pa to keep.
Yet public toilets are being wiped out (unfortunate phrase)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36405414
for want of £10k pa to keep them open.

Zebra, you are right* of course.

That bungalow next to us was built in 1920, one family from new. The owner was a classic car enthusiast and a member of the SOT
http://www.the-sot.com/
and worked at the National Physical Laboratory.
He also owned a banknote printing machine he bought from the Science Museum. He just liked machinery.
And he was an aficionado of screw threads.
However unlike Malcolm, his house came a long way down his priorities. No room was ever redecorated, although most of them were started. He had sheds built onto sheds, three garages, lord knows how many cars. He was a great chap. Fortunately, the hedge between us was high.

Ivor

*And so am I, in a different sense

 

[Gareth Hughes]

We are the most crowded country in Europe.

Tenth actually, behind (among others) Belgium and the Netherlands and just ahead of Germany. Population density of 'Guernsey and Jersey is more than three times that of the UK.

 

[TheForge]

Are Jersey and Guernsey not part of the U.K.? I can only see Monaco, Malta, Belgium and the Netherlands with a greater population density than the UK within the EU.

 

[malcolm]

Do we need to rattle on about the EU? I'm sure there is nobody on here who will change their minds over the next 2 weeks, and in the meantime it is quite nice being EU referendum free.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Are Jersey and Guernsey not part of the U.K.? I can only see Monaco, Malta, Belgium and the Netherlands with a greater population density than the UK within the EU.

No, Jersey and Guernsey are not part of the United Kingdom. Nor is the Isle of Man.

 

[a twig]

Do we need to rattle on about the EU? I'm sure there is nobody on here who will change their minds over the next 2 weeks, and in the meantime it is quite nice being EU referendum free.

Quite, quite frankly councils will inevitably be their own short-sighted selves, run by corrupt (see Private Eye's "Rotten boroughs" feature) people unable to achieve any meaningful position of responsibility anywhere else. Immigration, EU blah blah will have no effect on that what so ever. We must do our best to duck and weave to get what we want, often despite the council's best efforts.

In regards to the original point: my village is also changing. Yes our next door neighbour has "butchered" their property, and yes, the gaps in the village are being "filled in" by new builds. So what? I'm not always a fan of development, yet I enjoy the fact that the village grew enough for BT to put in fibre optic internet. I like that the increased population will mean that there continues to be support for two village pubs in a time when many have none. And most of the new arrivals have been very personable, and pitched in to village life, irrelevant of nationality or background. And in the middle of it, my wife and I have our own oasis, which we could never have afforded had it been well looked after or "modernised". We're staying, and looking forward to what happens next.

Wyrd bin ful aread..