Councils are blocking families from extending bungalows to protect the elderly.
In August 2020, the Government introduced new rules which allow homeowners to expand single-story dwellings upwards without planning permission.
This allows a bungalow, for example, to be extended upwards by 3.5 metres in roof height, allowing an extra floor to be added.
But councils such as Epping Forest and Hertsmere Borough have introduced “protections” which block extensions in an effort to stem the flow of conversions and preserve the number of single-storey homes for older people who may struggle with stairs.
Using an ‘Article 4’ direction, local authorities can remove national permitted development rights to protect local amenities.
Steve, you got the lasers strapped onto those lions yet? We’re gonna need ’em.
What sort of fucking idiot relaxes national planning laws then allows local councils to re-restrict them?
A Tory one, of course!
Does Julia really believe that Labour or Lib-Dum would be any better? Christ on a bike.
Sure, the Tories are unbelievably stupid, but what is the alternative?
Michael Gove would.
Tim – I’m thinking we’re going to need an entire Pride Year.
Witchie – Sure, the Tories are unbelievably stupid, but what is the alternative?
At this point, pretty much anything that could potentially disrupt the conveyor belt we’re on might be welcome. When you’re a battery chicken, you ain’t got nothing left to lose.
Wow! Amazingly, we differ! As an aged bungalow dweller who suffers from what Dr Steve, in his spare time from lazerlion training, correctly diagnosed as Hitlerpox, I’m grateful that bungalows exist.
A neighbour added a storey (I’m English) to his bungalow at a cost of £50,000 which increased the value by £100,000, so I suppose bungalows will disappear around here until their price premium based on scarcity negates the profitability of extending.
I’m not keen on National Governments deciding much, so this form of localism appeals to me.
As for ConLabLib, I’d like Dr Steve to re-equip said lions with thermonuclear devices…
The only way anything is going to improve politically is if both the tory and labour parties are utterly annihilated (the lib dums are irrelevant). Vote for anyone else, I don’t care which. Just never, ever, vote tory labour or lib dum.
Are stairs that big of a problem these days?
Sure, some people have mobility issues, but stairlifts have been a thing for a while now.
There’s always the option of having a lift installed as well…
the Tories are unbelievably stupid, but what is the alternative?
Ideally, a total Tory wipe out at the next election which either forces the Tories to rediscover conservatism or allows the emergence of a new, genuinely conservative party.
Of course the immediate alternative will be a Labour government. Certainly will be awful, but can only be marginally more shite than the Blue Tie Blairites currently in office.
I usually say that the 2023 Tories are basically Labour + Brexit. That’s not actually true. Official Labour policy in 2019 was Brexit, but a shit deal, and that is exactly what the Tories delivered, along with record taxes, record state bloating, record immigration and more Net Zero nonsense than ever.
So there isn’t really any practical difference. Although I suppose if Compo had become PM, we’d have had extra Jew-baiting too…
Can’t exactly see what you’re complaining about. Sure, it’s good to get rid of a national impediment that prevents bungalows being extended upwards. But one size doesn’t fit all. I can think of several bungalow estates. They were built for a specific demand. They’re still very popular for the same reason. Maybe the people who live there don’t want their nature changed by a minority.
Surely planning is best done at the level where people actually live. Not by government diktat from Westminster. So removing a national restriction is good. But what’s wrong with a local restriction? How would you feel about national abolishing restrictions on demolishing/ modernising listed Georgian terraces in provincial cities?
So the elderly can’t live in a house and not go upstairs then?
Promble is, if the Tories are wiped out at the next GE, that will be seen as “the people want Leftism!” and the remains of the Conservatives will offer even more Leftism seeing that as what gets you elected.
Depends. If a sizeable chunk of their vote share from last time goes to Reform/Reclaim/other “far right” “nazis” (as if) then some might acquire a clue.
Well, Europe is starting to get a bit more fashy in its election results, but otoh Africans just burnt down France and the French surrendered.
So idk how much it matters what people vote for. Either white people will do the things that are necessary to create a future for their children, or they won’t.
Sorry, the Council prevents you extending a bungalow upwards “to protect the elderly”; how? How the bloody hell does that protect the elderly?
If I were to add an extra floor to my home, then round up a couple of octogenarians and then force them up and down the stairs then, fair enough, they might need protecting. Otherwise, what the bloody hell? Protecting people from what exactly?
Problem: “The previous owner moved the bathroom upstairs”
Solution: “Don’t buy the fucking house then”
. . . Africans just burnt down France and the French surrendered.
Did something unusual happen? It seemed to reach pique carbeque in the cities and then faded away. All fairly normal. Was some major concession granted?
Most of France won’t have noticed, except politically. They may have a tougher time keeping out “le Pen” in the second round this time, but they’ll probably succeed.
I was struck that in the reporting about the French excitements nobody devoted a word to how fiercely EVs burn. What can it mean?
@MC – “Ideally, a total Tory wipe out at the next election”
Yes, but with both Labour and the Lib Dems needing each other to form a majority. Otherwise we’ll have too much left wing insanity.
@Steve
I see your racism is in full flow. The French have never needed anyone else to have a good riot.
@dearieme – “nobody devoted a word to how fiercely EVs burn. What can it mean?”
I’d guess it means there aren’t many EVs in France.
I see your racism is in full flow. The French have never needed anyone else to have a good riot.
The Swedes always had a problem with hand grenades, just like we always had a problem with bush meat.
I’d guess it means there aren’t many EVs in France.
I’m just back from a day in Cambridge, where I swear every other car had green number plates, whereas in Paris I might see one or two EVs in a day (and hardly any charging points, which might explain that). While, in the rest of France, they’re like hen’s teeth.
So the council is being ageist. How dare they think that all old people have mobility issues. Reality is that they don’t. Old people get bungalows for when they get really really old, or for a single member of the family. It means they don’t need to move when they do get health problems. Extending a bungalow upwards doesn’t always remove the bedrooms on the ground floor.
@Chris Miller
Till I read your post I had been wondering why some new car number plates were green at one end. The fact they were electric had passed me by. I had assumed it was just to fill the space previously occupied by that nasty EU logo.
PJF – pique carbeque in the cities and then faded away. All fairly normal. Was some major concession granted?
Yes. Invaders burned France, and France didn’t remove the invaders. There’ll be even more invaders next time they feel like burning down the remnants of French civilisation for a laugh, and even fewer French.
The French government blamed video games and the internet and plans on paying millions more economically useless migrants from Africa to Africanise the leftovers of France.
Winners: the invaders.
“Ah, but the Goths have sacked Rome BEFORE…'” … Cmonbuddy.txt
Charles –
I see your racism is in full flow
Thank you x
Charles @ 6.26 The indigenous French are quite happy to riot and fight when they know they aren’t going to get a kicking in return (ie: burning lorry loads of British Lamb whilst the Gendarmes look on) but when there is the likelihood of trouble coming their way, they give in, hence the old joke:
How many Frenchmen does it take to defend Paris? No one knows, they’ve never tried it.
These invaders on the other hand are quite used to proper levels of violence being meted out by the ‘security forces’ back in the homeland so have no fear of French riot police who have been instructed not to do anything drastic, like hurt any of the rioters. Same as with the UK…….
Steve @ 8.29, of course it was the interwebs fault, in the same way the Beghazi riot and murder of the US Ambassador + 3 others was caused by a ‘movie’.