Dear Illustrious Community,

We are going through a very stressful time; we are living on our own plot having all but finished our strawbale building. We have another plot with full pp for a dwelling and were planning to resubmit to build a small mediation/work studio in the place of the dwelling with a small granny annexe. Although we have pp, the neighbour overlooking that plot has complained vociferously due to fears of reducing the value of their property (i.e. having a caravan on the plot and building over too long a time for their preferences for selling) Despite the fact that they bought thier plot knowing ours had pp and we obtained pp for them in the first place....
We have had the enforcement officer who has been supportive and told the complainant that al is above board. However, they are still insisting on taking it further.
Since we are feeling less and less like building under their noses on the plot onto which our contractors have just moved, we would like to change our plans to build on the plot in which our building currently sits. (We have pp for another building here as well.) This would be far less stressful and work very well. Here's the question, are there any obvious problems with our contractors living on the plot next to this one in the caravan which we recently moved onto it whilst building on this one? We don't want to go to the planners directly at this stage.
Any pointers much appreciated.

I bought a static caravan for a rebuild many years ago and the building inspector said as long as it was removed on completion of the house they had no trouble with it. Lucky me, the neighbours did not mind. look at:- http://selfbuild.com/showthread.php?9-Do-I-need-planning-permission-for-my-caravan

P.S. have you a web site re your straw bale build, I am planning one, helped on two and would love to see what you have done.

Just a thought,

It appears that it is ok for the builder to live in a caravan on site during a build.

the question is: "Is it ok for the builder to live on a caravan on a plot next door to the site being built?"

If you have planning for both plots could you not start both by digging the foundations for both, or at least a part of the foundations for one. Then the builders could live on that plot (as it is an active site) whilst building on the "real" site.

Would that work?

Thank you - The contractors already have permission from our planning dept. to live in the static caravan whilst building for us. The only change is that the building would be next door in our other plot. We could incorporate the building plot as our garden a give up pp for a dwelling on it to make it easier?

However, they are still insisting on taking it further.

Did they say how? I'm not aware of anything they can do. If the planning officer is happy they have no mechanisim to take things further. If your workers were causing some kind of statutory nusiance (noise, dust, smells?) then they might be able to get that stopped but otherwise I can't see that they can do anything.

How long would they be living on one plot but working on another?

I'd be tempted to just get on with it. If the planning officer were to object you could tell him the contractors will be starting work on "their plot" soon and that would make them "legal". If he comes back again tell him you've been delayed a bit but they really will be starting soon. If really necessary you could do the bare minimum work on their site so that it qualifies as having been "started" (in the planning sense). Once work has started there is no rule on how fast they have to work :-)

Eventually if the planning officer decides they have stopped work and therefore aren't following the rules he might write to you to advise that they need planning permission to live on that site while working on another. However if he can see they won't be "in breech" for long I doubt he will press the matter. Even if he did you could delay a month or two then submit a planning application for temporary use which would probably buy you another two months even if it was refused. At that point they could issue a notice of intent to issue enforcement proceedings but you could submit an appeal and that would delay things further, possibly for six months. The planners know you have the ability to delay any formal action they take so if they think you will move the vans when finished I think it unlikely they will give you too much trouble.

In Machiavelli 'The Prince', he claims to get respect from the enemy first you have to totally crush them, then start giving out small treats. Do it the other way around and you are heading for failure.