Planned Impermanence
ROD WEBB
Decisions made by the planning department of Hastings Borough Council (HBC) are a regular source of complaints from the local community. These might appear to be an over-zealous application of regulation for the average householder, or the apparent lack of constraint placed on some with power and influence.
A view under the shed when lifted
Stephen Holden has decided to hit back at one such decision by making a big splash in the media to publicise his concerns. Last Thursday, he arranged for his workshop to be winched onto a flatbed truck, driven to Muriel Matters House and parked outside. He not only wanted to demonstrate that the workshop was a moveable structure, but also to hammer the point home – which is why he had Meridian News waiting outside to film the event. In the end, safety issues with all the spectators apparently prevented delivery to the council offices; but they did manage to film the workshop being lifted clear off the ground, .
Mr Holden’s problems began when he received a notice from the planning department regarding an objection to the workshop he had erected in the garden of his flat in Emmanuel Road: a complaint about an obstructed view. This came as a surprise to Mr Holden as he had been told by the company supplying the workshop, JK Designer Builds, that he would be unlikely to need planning permission. In fact the company website specifically states that the patented system removes the need for foundations and allows the structure to be moved in one piece, in conformity with the Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960.
On being contacted by the council, Mr Holden was persuaded to apply for retrospective planning permission, but this was refused and likewise his subsequent appeal. Finally he was served with an enforcement notice, which is when he decided more decisive action was needed. According to Mr Holden, HBC has consistently refused to engage with him about its moveability. And he goes on to say: “I maintain (on the advice of the company who constructed it) that because it is movable on a flatbed truck, it should be classed as a caravan, which should not require planning permission when parked on my land.”
Planning rules can be opaque not only for those applying for permission, but also for planning committees adjudicating them. As Nicholas Boys Smith, of the Create Streets Foundation, writes: “What can be built, and where, is arguably less clear than at any time during the last 100 years.” He continues: The modern British planning system is curiously unclear and unpredictable, not just denying landowners development rights without formal consent, but also making it (in historical terms) unclear to neighbours what will be permitted.
Perhaps planning departments around the country should bear this in mind when making decisions and err on the side of the common good.
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