Forum Topic

Lack of neighbour notification - Planning

Not long ago, the Council's Planning Department announced that they were no longer sending out the usual neighbour notification letters giving 21 days in which to comment. A system that we have become used to. The department assured people that Public Notices on lampposts were quite sufficient to keep people informed of developments in their area and to allow them to participate in the decision-making process.I live in Acton and this new system is simply not working! The property next door applied to build a second house in their back garden. The original Notice was apparently seen by a neighbour but was gone by the next day. I reported this to the Planning Department. A second Notice was put up in only one of the two roads affected (as it is a corner plot). That disappeared within 24 hours. I again reported this to the Council and a third Notice was put up which again was gone by morning.I doubt whether many neighbours are aware of what is going on and it seems ridiculous that the Council stopped sending out letters to neighbours to save postage, but now instead they are having to send staff out 3 times to the same property and there are still no Notices in either of the 2 roads.On reading the news item on this website that Planning Officers are now being allowed to grant planning permission for up to 50 flats without any involvement of the Planning Committee Councillors, this would seem to be the end of planning control in Ealing!

Nicky Hermes ● 3576d17 Comments

What you can do is create a personal account on the Ealing planning web site and then enter postcodes that you are interested in (partial works ... like "W5 A") and then you can have daily email notification of all new applications.

Paul Webster ● 3502d

Thought this might be a good place to ask how to speak to the planning dept (without time off work). I ask because I waited 3 days last week for a callback which never came even after chasing several times and being told "they have to contact you by the end of the day" and "i will tell them it is urgent".I assume emails are treated the same way?

Keith Prior ● 3503d

Yet again, there is a substantial planning application in for 1 Westbury Road, Ealing but with no Public Notices displayed in either Madeley Road or Westbury Road.The plot has been subject to about 30 planning applications, revised applications and appeals over the last 20 years (all refused/dismissed) plus a High Court covenant case won by 19 neighbours against the previous owner.The new owner Mr Brian McGee is aware that the Restrictive Covenant permits the main house to be used as a private dwellinghouse only.  After living in Westbury Road for about 12 years, Mr McGee has applied to convert the £10 Million Pound house into 13 Flats apparently including building 3 flats in his swimming pool!Neighbours only found out about the Application (adjacent to the Haven Green Conservation Area) when they received a letter from the Agent (Mr Peter Causer) to the Applicant referring to the High Court Order.There is no Public Notice on any of the lampposts or trees outside or near to the application land.I shall be writing to Mr David Scourfield, the new Head of Planning, about this, as the time to respond is ticking away and many neighbours would be unaware that an Application is in.  The back garden of Westbury adjoins properties in 3 roads (Haven Lane, Madeley Road and Westbury Road).I attempted to view the online planning papers earlier today including the Plans & Drawings but the Council's Website states there are no papers that are available to be viewed!So, no Notice, no Plans! Successive Government planners have in the past welcomed and encouraged the public to participate in the decision-making process  - but in Ealing these days, this is made very difficult, as can be seen.24/6/16

Victor Mishiku ● 3510d

The Government's austerity cuts are designed to cut the state sector.  The Conservatives will blame Labour and Labour the Conservatives. Where there is loud independent input and input from other parties embrace it!

Philippa Bond ● 3537d

Dear Harry,I believe that it was said by the Planning Department management that the Department would save some money (twenty-five thousand pounds) by not sending out letters of notification (21 days) as we had in Ealing for at least 30 years (likely more).Lamppost Notices were not required before except for Conservation Areas (and sometimes optionally for land adjacent to a CA).  Now, Lamppost Notices are being affixed for all applications all over the borough, whether in a CA or not.Some Notices (as in Mr Hermes's case) are having to be affixed three times!It seems that despite living next door to the proposed development land, Mr Hermes himself has never seen the Lamppost Notice or if he did, then it was gone in less than 24 hours!I would have thought that the savings in postage by not sending postal Notifications out would be negated by all the man-hours required for individual Lamppost Notices having to be manually affixed all throughout the entire borough and as we have heard, some having to be re-affixed more than once.Developers know that the Lamppost Notice is all there is now - so as this is easily "disappeared", no one will know what they may find being built next door to them until it is too late!Coupled with the recent increase in planning officers' powers to allow developments of up to 50 Flats WITHOUT reference to the Planning Committee, this is an erosion of the planning system's ability to conduct a fair and equal service often at the cost of neighbours' amenity and quality of life.The Local Government Ombudsman has ruled that it is the duty of Councils to safeguard the amenity of neighbours in planning cases  - but very often, I fear, this is not happening.

Victor Mishiku ● 3537d

The lamp post method worked very well when we knew and spoke to our neighbours.If anyone is concerned about a local planning application dangling from a lamp post then it can be photographed and copies printed then hand posted through your neighbours doors.I hope the council have cut the price of a planning application as they now don't have to send an official out to hand deliver the planning application to the affected properties.Silly me.

Harry Jay ● 3537d

I suspect we are returning to the brown envelope days as in the past when Ealing had a London wide reputation for dodgy planning permissions.

Libby Kemp ● 3538d

Even when notification letters were being sent out by the Council Planning Department, although we live next door to proposed development land, we received no notification letter and I only found out about the application by chance from a member of the residents association, leaving me with very little time to study the plans and prepare comments.Now Ealing no longer sends out notification letters but merely relies upon a lamppost notice, which is "here today, gone tomorrow", it seems almost like Planning Permissions are recommended by default by Ealing Planners with little or no participation from unaware neighbours.The real problem residents have in Ealing is that LBE planners are not interested in what neighbours may think of developers’ applications. This way if no-one knows that an application has been submitted and pending approval it’s less correspondence that they will need to deal with. You can imagine a quick way in not having to deal with worried neighbours objecting to planning applications within the borough, is not to notify anyone! I ask myself is this Ealing Queen of the Suburbs or a recent addition to North Korea ?

Nicolas Ozegovic ● 3538d

I have just heard from neighbours in Mount Park Crescent, that the Notice of a Planning Application for a substantial development proposed (in breach of covenant!) was not on display and although living very nearby, they had no idea that there was an Application in.As in the Acton case that Mr Hermes wrote about, developments are being processed WITHOUT proper participation by the public in the decision-making process.When the Council stopped sending out the familiar 21 days Notices, they simply made it easier for developers and especially when Notices are "disappearing" sometimes within hours of their being attached to street lammposts.

Victor Mishiku ● 3538d

I have just heard from neighbours in Mount Park Crescent, that the Notice of a Planning Application for a substantial development proposed (in breach of covenant!) was not on display and although living very nearby, they had no idea that there was an Application in.As in the Acton case that Mr Hermes wrote about, developments are being processed with proper participation by the public in the decision-making process.When the Council stopped sending out the familiar 21 days Notices, they simply made it easier for developers and especially when Notices are "disappearing" sometimes within hours of their being attached to street lammposts.

Victor Mishiku ● 3538d

You can register on Ealing website, and they will send you notifications.  Explore this first and see how it works.  It has not been advertised well but it works.  There is also another website called the planning portal where you can register your postcode and it will notify you of anything within a one mile radious of that.  This also works well, probably better.  Try it, exhaust all possibilities and then when you are still not notified complain and get as many people to do it is possible.  Numbers work best!

Ewa Cwirko-Godycka ● 3566d

Having made the initial capital investment to set up the app it seems daft not to provide the relatively small amount of money that would be needed to keep it going.

Andy Jones ● 3568d

I signed up for this when it came out but haven't received any notifications since last year. The number of skips in neighbouring streets suggests that there has been no slowdown in building work in my area.In Chiswick the Hounslow applications now appear on Twitter and the local web site's newsletter. I believe this is part of the same Government funded project which created the mobile updates in Ealing Borough originally.

Andrew OSullivan ● 3569d

I also think the new powers Ealing Planning officers have granted to themselves far exceed those appropriate or acceptable for local government employees.It seems like Mr Bell and his colleagues in the Labour Party have become overwhelmed by the current workload and have decided to pass as much as they can onto paid officials. They will soon be claiming they do not have the resources and soon be demanding more taxpayers money to play agency staff and consultants.Hopefully the Secretary of State will consider the mistakes of Pat Hayes and the public opposition to the Ealing Broadway plans and Robert Gurd and other can raise this as well. If this London local authority planning office gets the power to decide while, as you rightly point out, failing to properly informing local people, every Borough will follow.Local councillors to buy to do the jobs they were elected to do should stand down.Martin CainFriary Park Preservation Group

Martin Cain ● 3574d

I don't think the Council's mobile phone app with the Gazette is being updated any more - it was only a trial.

Helena Cavanagh ● 3574d

Didn't Ealing launch a mobile phone notification service for planning in partnership with the Gazette? That surely is a more effective way both in terms of cost and effectiveness to let people know about applications near them.

Andy Jones ● 3576d

Ealing is sort of turning into Croydon - lots of high rise buildings and concrete! Such a shame that Ealing Council are obviously cutting every single budget to maintain that proud "frozen for another year" banner they shove up every year. We pay the same and yet they deliver less! Good luck with the planning dept. I am sure that "approved" stamp is prepped to go!

Mark James Robinson ● 3576d