In article , Nick Maclaren
writes

In article ,
"BAC" writes:
| "Malcolm" wrote in message
| ...
|
| Why bother with another newsgroup which, whatever its collective wisdom
| in legal matters, is highly unlikely to be able to give you the
| authoritative *local* information regarding walls and sheds in Aberdeen
| that you can get from visiting or phoning your local authority planning
| department?
|
| It is they, and they alone, who can tell you exactly what you want to
| know. Not only that, but you should receive an immediate answer
| precisely focussed on your particular local enquiry, without having to
| wait for, and then sift, the responses on the newsgroup.
|
| Quite right - advice from a legal newsgroup would cut little ice with an
| enforcement officer, should one appear on the doorstep at some future
| juncture, or with a future buyers' lawyers should you try to sell a house
| without the relevant consent or a 'letter of comfort' from the LPA. The
| local planning authority actually employs people to advise members of the
| public on questions like the one concerned.

Well, they may be helpful, but they may merely tell you what they want
you to think. There is no comeback on them if they tell you completely
bogus information, intended to make you think that you have fewer
rights than you do, if that is their policy. There are several local
authorities that are notorious for abusing their powers, and a far
greater number that are thoroughly confused (for which I don't blame
them).

Furthermore, if you check up with the relevant legislation etc., you
will find that almost the only location that has significant LOCAL
regulations is Greater London. Almost everywhere else, the local
variations are simply up to the how the local authority interprets
the vague and obscure legislation. In some cases, they have the
power to turn such interpretations into law; in other cases, they
don't; in the majority of cases, nobody knows if they do or not,
because no relevant dispute has reached the House of Lords :-(

It is worth asking them what THEIR view is, but it is assuredly worth
checking up if it doesn't match what you want to do. This newsgroup
and uk.legal are good starts.

In this particular case, I have a copy of only the 1971 Act at home,
but I believe that the relevant rules have not changed. There is
nothing about garden walls or garden sheds, and my information is
that the courts generally agree that they do NOT need planning
permission unless they have services. What they may need is BUILDING
permission and/or the go-ahead of the local Highways Authority (if
they are near a road).

In London, there are by-laws on the height of walls. It is unclear
whether other local authorities have the power to pass such by-laws,
especially since their emasculation during the Thatcher years. If
they don't have, then any such by-laws that they HAVE made will be
void. But you won't get told that by the local authority!

I doubt that the above clarifies anything :-(

No, I don't think it does, in the slightest! The more especially as the
questioner lives in Aberdeen and planning is a devolved matter in
Scotland so information about what happens in Greater London, or indeed
happened in the Thatcher years, doesn't really help him very much.

Aberdeen City Council, which was only formed in 1996, will no doubt be
able to advise on planning regulations operating, as it does, under the
Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997, which repealed the Town
and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1972, which in turn was the Scottish
version of the Town and Country Planning Act 1971 from which you quoted.

Therefore, the answer *has* to come from the local planning department,
while asking questions on newsgroups will not (indeed almost certainly
cannot) produce the same definitive answer, however "bogus" you might
think it could be based on your apparent experience of, presumably
English, local authorities and regardless of decisions made by,
presumably English, courts, neither of which are relevant in this
instance.

--
Malcolm