According to the proverb; good fences make good neighbours, apparently. Seems we don’t have good neighbours though! Latest on the development front; as Jo was walking out the door she saw that the builders are taking down the fence between our block and theirs! First we have heard of it was when the builder came over and asked whether or not we had a dog! No idea what the answer would have been if she said yes, since they had already removed all the poles and were starting on the sections of the fence palings.

A telephone query to the council for rubber-stamping building permits reveals that we should have inferred that the fence would be removed from the placement of the proposed development’s walls on the plans, and the developer should have have received verbal approval before starting work on the fence this morning. Apparently the fact that Jo didn’t tell them to stop and put it back classifies as verbal approval!

The whole planning and objection process appears heavily weighted in favour of the developers. On their side they have the developer, builder and surveyor creating the plans and knowing all the ins and outs of the rules, on the other side are the neighbouring residents who are presented with a fully developed plan and meant to infer everything from that with the help of the council. Apparently all we had to do was ask the right questions of the council at the time! I pointed out that we didn’t even know the right questions since we aren’t developers or builders.

We really couldn’t care about that section of the fence anyway, it is hidden flush up against the house. What we do care about is the complete lack of notification and communication that appears to be displayed at every step of the way.