Hello I am new here, and trying to work out how to go about rebuilding a garden wall that was blown down last winter.
Finally managed to get a straight answer from my local city council about what plans they need, but a design and access statement? Who from? I have read the guidelines but they seem rather excessive as they refer to developments and changes to buildings which this is not.
Yes, we live in a conservation area, the house is listed, but the wall is not. So we do not need listed building planning for it, or so we are told by the city council, having been previously told that we do!!
We started this rigamarole months ago, when, having got a builder in to give us an estimate, we realised that we would have to build the wall slightly differently because it has a tree with a TPO in our garden, next to the wall, so the wall will have to make room for it. We had an arboriculturalists report done on the tree, which gave precise descriptions of what would be needed for the tree and the wall. At this point the owner of the house next door (it is let to someone else, she does not live there) then decided to go for permission to cut the tree down. After a frustrating and wasted three months, the tree still stands.
So...tearing our hair out, we are now facing a lot more cost - we think, if we do have to go the route of a design and access statement. We cannot get any sense out of the City council planning people, they just refer us to the guidelines on line, which tell us little that is helpful about who does these statements, and if it is really necessary anyway for a replacement garden wall!!!
We put in a claim to have the wall rebuilt, back at the beginning of the year, and got some of the money from the insurers, but had to stop the process because of all the fuss about the tree, and now we are not sure if we can go ahead, or if it will cost us even more.
Please...anyone? Any help very gratefully accepted.