[jameslindsay]

A few weeks ago a neighbour offered us an old static caravan for which we could use for storage of animal feed or as a bed for the goats. We jumped at the chance and put it out the back where it is well hidden underneath the overgrowth of trees etc. However, it is in front of a neighbours patio area and kitchen window - but she does not look in to the caravan and she can only see it if she looks down. Anyway, long story short she has reported us to planning who turned up on Thursday for a nosey. I was informed that as this is a business we would need planning permission - if it was private land we would not! What a pile of crap.

So, if we apply for planning permission and pay the £160 plus I doubt we have a chance that the planners will pass it. They turned us down for our extension but then the Councillors over ruled their decision, so you see they are already peeved at us. I asked the guy what would happen if I didn't apply for planning permission and he was a bit unsure but said they could issue an order to remove the caravan. So, I think we will sit it out, wait and see - and advice? You try to do good for your animals and provide them with a secure, waterproof shelter and bacause I am a business my right are different!!!

I am going to phone the planners tomorrow and say that this is my home for which I pay community tax so therefore I should be allowed to have a bit private garden and see what they say on that. I am so angry at my neighbour as this does not block her view in any way. What would you do?

[Rosemary]

Maybe go and chat to the neighbour? I wouldn't want to look out on to a scabby static caravan (not saying your's IS scabby, but beauty IS in the eye of the beholder) and might fear that this was the thin end of the wedge. I suppose it depends on your relationship with said neighbour, though. Maybe it can be sorted by chatting t through - although the planning genie is now out of the bottle.

I assume you didn't discuss the siting of the caravan before the fact.

[jameslindsay]

Rosemary to be honest talking to her is out of the question. She did talk to us and say she didn't like where it was sited and we said that was the best place for it so she took the official step. She does enjoy a beautiful view and that view is mostly our land but as you know you do not buy a view. The caravan is an old thing but as I said it is enveloped in amongs the trees and she does not look in to it. We decided to site it where we did as it is mainly for safety as it is the closest place to the house and it is a long thin piece of useless land where the railway used to pass and because it was so shaded and would not be visible.

[jameslindsay]

I was discussing this topic with an architect customer this afternoon and he adviced not to apply for planning on the grounds that it should take forever for the council to do anything! It so angers me when I pass so many farms around this area and all of them with several/lots of static caravans either for their berry pickers or storeage for people and I bet you not one of these farmers has, or has been told to, apply for planning permission.

[Anke]

Can you put some green fencing or similar round it, or put in some stout wire or mesh and grow up climbers, I am sure there are many that will thrive in shady areas - try ivy, your goats will love you for it!

Then it is out of direct view? And you have done something about it, that the planners would almost certainly demand if any PP was granted.

[Roxy]

How many houses do you pass, James, who own a caravan and have it sitting on their drive?  This may be blocking someone's view, but nothing is ever done about it!!!

A friend of ours has a caravan site - not very big, but its quite popular.  She got a static caravan, intending to let it out for holidays.  It was up against the side of her house, so not sticking out like a sore thumb. Someone reported it though, and it had to be moved.  Yet, the field was full of tourers all summer!!!

I have a 4 berth caravan parked in front of the farmhouse - we say we are living in it, while renovating the farm (which we are).  Behind the hedge I have another caravan where all the farm cats live!!  I am in a green belt area too.  Nothing said so far.

I cannot see why you running a business should affect whether you can have the caravan or not?  You are right though, it does take forever for the council to take steps to make you move it.  And its got wheels?  Then it is surely classed as temporary and mobile.

[jameslindsay]

Hi Roxy, bureaucracy is full of double standards. I have 2 houses attached to my property, the first is the holiday home for a couple from Glasgow and the second is a lady who used to just live there during school holidays but now is retired and lived there full time. Both houses were delighted at seeing us gradually introduce the animals but the second we try and give the animals a decent shelter all hell happens. This caravan which is on wheels can be seen from nowhere except the back of their property and only if you look down the way. It does not block any view or block out light from windows.

The neighbours who only use the house now and again decided to send us a lawyers letter on Friday saying that a small and useless piece of land that they have always said is ours in now theirs and they want to put a fence on it. So, if it is their land why the hell ask our permission to put up a fence, why have they always asked us permission to stand on it to enable them to wash the conservatory roof and why can't they just show us their title deeds that says yip this is their land? For the first time in my life not getting on with my neighbours! The fight continues...

[sheila]

I tell you what james. don't get caught up in their games or the legallities of it. you will be the one to suffer both financially and mentally if you do. Rather feel sorry for them and the fact that they have nothing better to do in their lives.Don't move anything until forced by law to do so.

[jameslindsay]

Thanks Sheila, I have no intentions of moving anything or letting it cost me any money. These people need a dose of reality but are so tight in their perfect little bubbles, we had a good relationship before this happened - not now.

[WinslowPorker]

Just a though but if it is a caravan i assume it is mobile, which in my limited knowldge means you dont need planing as it is not a permanent structure??

[Sandy]

I am fumeing for you both!! I wonder why any busness looses the right to things? We also live in our B&B and would could have got grants for doing things to improve the house but due to us being a business we are not intiltelled to any!!! I lived in a terrace house that had a lane up to my back garden, there was a fence and a gate to my garden but I took it down so it was easier to park my VW in my garden, otherwise it was a tight squeeze, then, the house sold at the bottom of the garden and he put a fence up with a gate that would have been opening into my garden if I had not taken that fence panel down!! he then went mad at me for parking there!!!! I said but it is my garden, he went mad so as I was moving and he was up for sale I left it and parked up the lane more often than not!!!!! Anyway, I digress, if that caravan was mobile, I would keep moving it around and be less sensitive of where you put it!!!!(just to P them off!!)

[egglady]

blooming heck James, what a pile of pooh!  We are in the same position as you guys, our home/land is also our business and have been told that anything that isnt static (ie CAN be moved, even if it isnt) doesnt need planning permission.  And given that we are only a few miles from you, surely we are dealing with the same council/planning dept!?!?!?

personally i wouldnt phone them at all.  i'd take some photos and pop into their office in Cupar and discuss the situation with them face to face.  i find it's always a better option than unpersonal phone calls.  you never know you might end up speaking to someone who's had a meal at your place so they'll know the 'feel' of the place.

stay calm, no point in giving yourself a nervous breakdown on account of someone else's pettiness!

[bazzais]

Your problem is probably when/if you told them what your going to use it for. 

You should have stated that it use was for extra room for house dwellers and their families to visit in holiday times.

fecking planners piss me off though - its unbelievable that it only takes one complaint to get them interested then they just spend their time making it a royal pain in the arse to progress with anything.

Is the land agricultural land or is it within the house boundary?  If its within reasonable distance from your home you should not need planning to park/store a caravan or keep it for friends to stay in when they visit, provided its not connected to any mains in a permanent way.

If I were you I'd find my land title deeds incase your neighbours decide to try and register the land - if you dont have any, then find all your paperwork relating to the sale of the land to you and register it quick.  I'd also leave it there for the minute, but only use it to store stuff in, I wouldnt risk putting animals in it yet whilst there maybe a visit from the planning dept.

The worst they can do is serve an enforcement notice to get it removed and it may take years to serve that - keep it there for now.

Ta

Baz

[jameslindsay]

Baz the land is at the back of the hotel so is therefore my back garden. The first acre paddock was used as a beer garden and sits along side the river bank. The other 3 acres is too far away from the "house" so I wouldn't be able to "keep an eye" on any animals housed so far away. If I get any hassles over it I will approach the press to do a story on the poor animals getting turfed out of their new home by the "nasty, uncaring" council!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hopefully it won't come to that.

[Hardfeather]

Gotta be careful there. I remember a friend of mine had a good deal of bother over whether his animals were being kept too close to his food outlet. He was serving fast food from an annexe to his house and had pigs and goats over the fence. He ended up having to relocate the animals.