Gambling.

Today. I thought I need to give some background info on the vital "planning permission". (for which we are currently eagerly awaiting an answer from the local authorities)

I appreciate this is not necessarily a entertaining subject; but hopefully a hardly veiled undertone should make it a little less " dry" to read.

In brief for the readers who are not familiar with the uk planning rules:

- the process takes a long time to be processed ( 8 weeks minimum to be precise) (we are expecting an answer for our proposal first week of October!!!)

- the written planning " rules" and "guidelines" are notoriously slippery... And can be argued in any one way depending on the "interpretation" of the officer the application falls upon.

- neighbours are "consulted" for their opinion and if more then 3 claim they would be negatively affected by the proposal, the process all of a sudden takes up to 6 months and a number of other hoops need to be jumped through ( including a planning meeting etc) (for information we have more then 30 adjacent plots to our property)

- neighbours (although I cannot generalize) tend to be against anybody doing anything at all. (A acronym has been termed(not by myself): "NIMBY"... Standing for Not In My Back Yard -)

I could be expanding here but basically it took over 10 years for the 3rd runway at London Heathrow to be approved or something like that(?) and this is in the interest of the entre nation.... ( I realise this comment may be politically charged -especially if you happen to live under the new flight path)

But really I should stop here.  Please accept my apologies; I have a feeling that personal frustration and anxiety is being vented...

This is not what this blog should be about.

You may refer to the below link for more "factual" information. 

http://www.hackney.gov.uk/ep-planning-policy.htm#