AntelopeStar

Hi Gajendra, Sorry in advance if this post is now closed. Just read the post and wondered how you got on with your appeal? I’ve been in a similar situation (different LA in the South East), although some differences: 1) Bought house where garage already built (planning permission granted and built in 1996), however previous owners neither applied for or installed a dropped kerb, just trundled their car over the pavement for the 40 years they owned the house, AND parked a second car on the non-dropped kerb resulting in, surprise surprise, a destroyed and unsightly kerb; 2) A single small tree forlornly exists <0.5M from the entrance of the existing garage, looks very sorry for itself after years of parking abuse near it/never flourishes, and initial enquiry to the council (prior to purchase completion), LA advised a dropped kerb would not be permitted as installing would be within the RPA of the tree (approx 1M - trunk diameter very small). I proffered that the damage to the poor tree had already been done, and requested if there might be alternative solutions, but nil response. 3) However, on speaking to the previous owner’s son prior to house purchase (it was his parents who were blatantly (and unchecked by either council or police enforcement for decades) driving over and parking on the pavement for decades) advised that the tree had been planted there by the LA about 10 years AFTER the garage had been built. So I took a punt and went ahead with the house purchase, on basis if an appeal failed I could relocate the garage to be outside the RPA (bloody expensive!), or flatten what is currently a fairly shoddy garage anyway, so that a dropped kerb would be outside of the RPA, and just install a hardstanding (still not cheap but an option nevertheless). No comment about LA here, other than it has taken 6 mths of emails to get to a conclusion. Have just had an approval through from the LA Highways section, and having checked all of the approval paperwork, and after all of the objections raised by the LA TO, there is absolutely no conditions stated relating to the tree and dropped kerb distance from RPA at all. I will ask the contractor I intend to use to check this to make sure I haven’t missed something, but at the moment I’m assuming an oversight in the LA’s part. The dilemma for me is though, it’s the difference between several thousands £ to either flatten garage and build hardstanding, or, flatten and relocate the garage to avoid the RPA of a tree that has already had c.15 years of parking abuse, or to leave the garage where it is, and put the dropped kerb in close to the tree as no conditions regarding that in the approval. Hmm. Anyway, sorry for the ramble/thought might be useful to share for the forum, and hope you have found a solution for your parking needs whilst still conserving the existing trees (far more substantial and mature than the poor twig outside of my house)