When I bought my own building plot and built my house 6 years ago it came with an additional piece of land. Its a triangular piece of land, 1/3 of an acre and is about 150yds down a bridal way from the house.
I've never done anything with it and it's all overgrown and is surrounded by a really old wall as the bridal way was once a roman road.
It would make a really nice building plot and plots that size in our area are around £80-100K. I did look on the council village plan and it is just outside of the development area. Is there anything I can do with it to make it pay in some way?
Reviewing the Council’s Development Plan Proposals Map is a good start in establishing whether your piece of land could have development potential. The fact that it falls outside of the development boundary does not in itself mean that it is not appropriate for development planning wise, there are sometimes exceptions although it is often more complicated to get a planning approval. On this point, I would double check that you are reviewing the latest adopted plan . You should also be mindful that a lot of council’s are in the process of preparing new plans and that as such, there may be an emerging plans/proposals maps floating around as well, which may well provide your site with different planning designations. Dependent on how advanced this is, it could also have material planning weight attached to it and could help you.
As a next point of call, I would recommend that you review the written part of the development plan which accompanies the proposals map – not as daunting as it first sounds as the plans are separated into chapters and often have a list of the planning policies which the development plan contains. I would suggest that you firstly look under the housing chapter – what you are looking for is a planning policy to do with the development of new housing and where it is appropriate, failing that you may also find this policy under a chapter which refers to development boundaries – this should hopefully give you a clearer indication as to where new housing is considered appropriate or indeed, any other development that may be acceptable.
You could also always contact your local council’s planning department and ask to speak to the duty planner. – they may also be able to give you some assistance in general although I would not be immediately be put off if the response is negative as with a robust case you can often be successful on appeal.
The next issue which you would need to consider would be access and car parking. How wide is the bridal way?
Also, what if any other uses surround your site – this would also be a material planning consideration should you submit an application.
Hope this helps to get you started – just ask if your research raises any further questions and from a planning perspective I will try and help…work as a planner if you hadn’t already guessed!
I only just saw your reply to my question - ages had gone by without a reply, and in the mean time I had actually done most of the things you suggested.
I read the whole of the development plan for my area and it turns out that there are precedents/policy for a development of my land and it may be the council will be sympathetic if I plan a small development where a portion is allocated to affordable housing for local people.
Right now I am looking into the bridle path issue to see what the easements are over it and then I'll be off to the council for some up front actual opinions before submitted formal plans.
So thanks for taking the time to reply, it was great to see that I was going in the right direction with it.
Fingers crossed maybe a totally usless piece of land can have some real benefit and I can get planning permission.
Hi, i know this is a late reply - but I just wanted to say as I work in the council office, that policies on planning, and especially residential planning permission. So if you have been knocked back once, pick the phone up and ask them why - sometimes you have to submit a more formal application to get your point across. You don't say which part of the country you are in, but www.land-deals.co.uk should be able to give some good price comparisons.
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