Richard Struck

Welcome to the latest edition of Rickmansworth This Week e-news.If you would like to receive this by email, please contact me at rwstruck@gmail.com to get your own regular delivery. Feedback on this newsletter is always welcomed.

Berry Lane Telecomms Mast - appeal allowed
When this application for an 8.5 metre high mast outside numbers 71 & 73 Berry Lane came to the Development Control Committee last April, it was refused. But the applicant (T-Mobile) went to appeal. Now, the Planning Inspector has ruled that the application should be allowed. Local residents, particularly those with children at nearby Arnett Hills School, are naturally very upset. Three Rivers’ only course of action would be to take the ruling to the High Court, but this can only be done if it is thought there was something wrong with the legal process followed by the Inspector. The Legal Section at Three Rivers say that the process appears to have been followed correctly. Local residents are organising a meeting to see if there is any action they can take.
The Inspector’s report is on the Council’s website - see http://snipr.com/trdc0535 and look at “Associated Documents” - it is number 36 (the last one) in the list.

Changes to Permitted Development Rights

2008 will see a new Planning Reform Act which amongst other things will revise permitted development rights. This will enable a lot of properties to be extended without the need for planning permission. Whilst such rights already exist there are restrictive criteria which limit the amount properties can be extended in this way. These criteria are due to be increased significantly, which will mean a lot of residential extensions which currently require formal planning permission will be able to be built as permitted development. There will be no notifications to neighbours and inevitably there will be more enforcement complaints. Once the Act and all the related guidance has been issued the Council will issue a press release.

Be warned that a leaflet has been delivered across the District by a company called ‘Permitted Development Services Limited’. They claim to specialise in obtaining Certificates of Lawfulness for large outbuildings even where local authorities have refused planning permission and state that ‘usual planning policy restrictions do not apply’. The Council believes the leaflet is both premature and incorrect. It is premature because the Act has not been issued yet. It is incorrect because the additional restrictions that apply in Conservation Areas where Three Rivers has obtained Article 4 Directions will continue to apply regardless of the new legislation. Similarly, where Three Rivers has applied restrictive conditions to past planning permissions, removing future permitted development rights, these will also continue to apply.

Three Rivers website facelift
The Council’s website www.threerivers.gov.uk has been reorganised and made more user friendly. The link for planning applications (Planning On-Line) is in the middle of the home page, so this is now much easier to get to. Remember that it is possible to make comments on all planning applications, and it is very easy to do via the website.

New Planning Application
Denham Way, next to Hertford House, Maple Cross
http://snipr.com/trdc2601
On the site where permission was recently given for a hotel, a new application has been submitted for erection of a four storey office building with roof top plant room, detached reception building, multi-storey car park and associated access and landscaping.

Watersmeet Film Society
The Friends of Watersmeet Film Society opens the 2008 season on Thursday 17th January with a Bollywood film, “Om Shanti Om”. The film focuses on Om, who grows up up in the seventies. This is the time when he meets Shanti, the love of his life but shortly afterwards suffers an untimely demise. Om is immediately reincarnated and the story flash-forwards to the present day. Haunted by memories of his past life and his true love, Om attempts to solve the mystery of his death.
Matinee 2pm - doors open 1.15pm - tea and coffee served before and after the film.
Evening 7.45pm - an Indian Buffet available from 6.30pm at £3.50 per person.