Is it worth the hassle of objecting to planning?

A neighbour has submitted a planning application for a separate house at the rear of his property.

What are people's opinions on whether the planners take neighbours concerns into account. I do not want to cause unnecessary hassle with my neighbour, especially if the planners will go with other criteria and ignore my objections anyway.

I live in Dublin City Council area

Yes, planners take all objections into account.

It doesn't mean the objections are automatically valid or stand up, but the planners do take them into account.

For example, if you had an objection that said the devlopment was clearly in breach of S7 of the Planning Act, 1993 because of this specific feature (and it was actually in breach) then the planner would obviously take it into account. Of course, they could be expected to already know the feature was in breach, but there's no harm in reminding them.

If your objection said that you object because they are the only ones on the road who can build in their back garden and it's not fair then the objection will not go far - the planning acts don't have a lot to say on fairness.

Then in the middle you have objections that say the development will adversely impact the nature of the area, add more cars to the road, add a driveway onto an already busy junction, etc . . . these are not black/white types of decisions. One thing is for sure though - if you don't make the objection the planner definitely won't take your views into account.

z

cake said:

A neighbour has submitted a planning application for a separate house at the rear of his property.

What are people's opinions on whether the planners take neighbours concerns into account.

Click to expand...

It is definitely worth objecting if you have a valid concern and objections do have an effect.

Thanks for your replies. As you said, zag, if we don't object, the planners wont hear our views anyway.

Cheers

My limited experience of the planning process has been fairly good.

They make sensible enough decisions although obviously some people will be disappointed if their opinions are rejected.

I echo Zag's comments. You should have a valid reason for objecting.

Brendan

The council will have guidlines on their web site (dun laoire rathdown have anyway), which explain what the basic requirements are to apply to build in your back or side garden. These cover access (KEY), so if its at the side, you cant really do a sustainable objectionn on this. Other issues is size of back garden remaining ( min sq mt specified etc.
Check these first, and if it passes these, and unless it groosly overlooks your property, its hard to provide a sustainable objection nowadays. You may suceed reducing the scale, or modifying the plans somewhat.
Im not a planner - just my experience that in Dublin the planners want to increase density generally, and corner sites usually get approval with the above caveats...

you should certainly look at the plans which should be available at your local council offices, assuming your neighbour hasn't done the decent thing and sropped a copy around to you

Depending on the circumstances, even if planning is approved, it may be approved with changes which will reduce the impact on yourselves. However, before objecting, and if you get on with your neighbour, a quick chat about things like windows overlooking your garden may get issues resolved

If your objection is appealed to An Bord Pleannala by yourself(if you were unsuccesful) or your neigbour(if your objection was upheld and you PP was refused) then you are into a bit of a lottery. In my own circumstances, I objected to a neighbours PP, the council turned him down, he reapplied, got refused again, appealed to An Bord Pleannla who's assessor recomended that it be refused for all the reasons the council refused him, yet some senior person on ABP granted the permission. We ended up having no choice but to sell as a result.