Spanner in the works

You know that bit in Grand Designs when Kevin McCloud turns to the camera and says, “Building a house doesn’t always go smoothly as we are about to find out with today’s ….”

Today, it was our turn to find out what can happen to the best laid plans.

David had been invited to present an outline of our plans to a couple of people involved in the Council’s sustainability and planning groups.  All was going well from the sustainability perspective but the planning representative saw an issue that wasn’t going to be resolved quickly.

Council had embarked on a flood mitigation program in our neighbourhood.  This involves a plan to resize a section of storm water drain.  Plans were in the early stage of development but, until they had more details, it was unlikely that any planning permits were going to be issued for our property.  A spanner in the works!

So, on one hand everything we plan to do is consistent with the Council’s desire to encourage sustainable design.  On the other hand Planning, and hence our project, was constrained by the major drainage works.

Where to now?  We plan to get the full details of the meeting from David and brainstorm ideas on how we can respond positively to the feedback we’ve received.

Stay tuned for more news.

• detailed designplanning permit