P/25/04713/HOUPlanning Application P/25/04713/HOU

1) The North side of our garden extends westwards to a particular line. The lawn of our next door neighbour's house (4a) also extends to this same line. 2) Along this line is a 2.4 meter high "king post and sleeper" retaining wall. At the bottom of this wall the land is a steep slope down to our perimeter fence (alongside Lakeside Road). 3) When extending the garden westwards (during the housebuild) - our vendor wanted to have the South side of the garden extending to the same line as the North side. However, a TPO on a tree ("T3") in our neighbour's garden (3 Brackenhill) prevented this. 4) In 2024, the owners of 3 Brackenhill discovered that "T3" was diseased. They received official permission, and felled it. 5) As "T3" is no longer an issue we want to extend the South side of the garden, westward, to the same line as the North side. 6) Our reasons: • So our whole garden will be aligned. • It will be in line with the square garden next door at 4a. • The enlarged South side will then have space to hold a 30 meter-square garden studio. 7) We hear that Planning Permission is required because we will be raising ground "by more than 1ft". 8) We consulted a Structural Engineer (Simon Rayner, Alan Baxter Partnership LLP) regarding what construction to use for the new retaining wall (along the newly extended South side of garden). He advised to replicate the same construction as on the North side. IE: "king post and sleeper". 9) We then consulted an Arboricultural Surveyor (Gwydion Howell, GTree Ltd). He pointed out that there is a Maritime Pine with a TPO on it (on No. 3's land. Interestingly, this tree is variously named "T5" and/or "T9". Mr Howell did Arboricultural Surveying work for No. 3 Brackenhill last year, so he referred to his existing data and advised: "The protected area around T9 should be a radius of 9m - but one could squeeze another 30cm (ie: radius of 8.7m) to account for the fall in ground levels." He advised that BCP Planning Office would typically accepting construction over a protected area like this IF the structure was permeable (eg. "decking"). 10) Therefore, we are planning to extend the South side of the garden in two different constructions: i. The most northerly section as "king post and sleeper" construction (filled with earth & topped with a grass lawn). ii. The most southerly section (NB: this is constructed over the protected radius of the TPO tree) as a suspended platform of Decking. 11) As we will be extending our garden out, we have addressed the possible problem of reduced privacy for our neighbours at No. 3, by having a fence along the south side of the Suspended Decking. Therefore, there will be two rows of fencing, AND a Garden Studio building, between our neighbours' garden and our newly-extended South side garden. 12) We showed our plans to our neighbours at No. 3. They responded: "designs look great!" "You have no objections from us". 13) Our neighbours at No. 4a responded with "they look great"

P/25/04713/HOU