@imbimp, good luck.

Posted by: @imbimp

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Will do - currently navigating the planning process, so we’ll see 🙂 

Good luck, I hope your LPA is more enlightened than mine!

2 weeks in, much chasing, still no reply from the council on the mechanism of how to request permission or whether it’s even likely to go through.

Naturally there is no one you can speak to. Perhaps the government consultation recommending an increase to the size limit will complete in my favour before I get more news.

Unless your LPA can issue some extra-statutory concession (they do have some considerable discretion when it comes to enforcement) then the mechanism is a planning application.  

If you can get a readout on whether they are likely to approve it would be worthwhile.  They may be like mine and demand unachievable noise standards way more severe than PD, or they may be like others and be totally relaxed.  If it's the former and you can find a pd solution, that's probably the best route.

@jamespa When I wanted some information about placing some solar panels in my garden (resting on, not mounted to the ground) I contacted my local council and was told if I wished to discuss anything with the LPA team, I would have to pay a fee (£98 I think it was) first before I could even contact them! I was only after guidance as to their views on such matters. Regards, Toodles.

Yes that's quite normal.

And the 'advice' may be quite unhelpful in my limited experience, basically a load of backside covering telling things you can read up on anyway and nothing actually useful.

I think part of the problem, certainly with my lpa, is that the officers you get to deal with as a householder are pretty junior, so they can only tell you fairly basic things.

@jamespa That was the impression I gained from the short email I received from them, basically, you may have paid us well over £2,000 in council tax but what do you expect from us for that! I wished to check on a few technicalities that were not clear after many hours of researching on numerous websites about the finer points of the installation of solar panels in a garden space. I had found out all about the limitations of distance from any panels to one’s boundary, height above ground, permitted area etc. etc.etc. But I wanted information about what constitutes ‘ground mounted’ and found precious little - I also gained the impression that paying the fee was unlikely to open up access to a fount of knowledge on the subject. I also took the matter to my MP who after a long delay just spurted the URL’s for documents I had read along with a few anodyne officialise comments. So I went ahead rewardless! Regards, Toodles

A quick update. 3 months on, the council has approved the planning application, took 2 months of waiting, but was all pretty straight forward.

No qualms on the size of the thing, especially given the size limit seems pretty arbitrary, a few photoshop drawings and noise calculations based on the MCS maths alongside lots of form filling did the trick.

Installation is the next step, but the lesson learned, is you have to be very patient to get into this kind of thing.

Posted by: @imbimp

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A quick update. 3 months on, the council has approved the planning application, took 2 months of waiting, but was all pretty straight forward.

No qualms on the size of the thing, especially given the size limit seems pretty arbitrary, a few photoshop drawings and noise calculations based on the MCS maths alongside lots of form filling did the trick.

Installation is the next step, but the lesson learned, is you have to be very patient to get into this kind of thing.

Well done and good news.  if only my local planning authority was anything like so enlightened.