A good game of poker

When Tom the architect begins his email about the recent planning meeting last week with "Well, I wish I was in a position to say that they were in full support of the scheme.... They played a good game of poker and revealed very little."

My life! I thought just maybe that they might actually be able to point us in the right direction or be vaguely helpful rather than giving nothing away or was I asking too much?

These were the points from Tom: -

Position

-          They still have strong concerns about the north boundary wall site.

-          They understood our argument about all the houses on Higher Backway being road fronted – but his argument was local to the gap between Provender Mill and Tolbury House.

-          They would prefer to see the house positioned closer to the telephone exchange.

-          They understood the reason for the desired position and the reason for maximising the garden and south amenity.

Design

-          They thought the design looked compromised.

-          They felt the house needed to be either reflective of contemporary design and materials, or reflective of period housing stock found in the vicinity. I hate to say it but they were swaying more for the former.

-          If we were to go down the period housing route, they would want to see the majority of the house in stone.

-          They did not dislike the house behind the wall features, but felt the wall would become too high and dominate for the street scene.

Use

-          They mentioned that the only reason why they are considering this application is because of the certificate of lawfulness on the previous application, otherwise they feel it would not be fit for development.

-          They are not opposed to a four bed house in this location.

Access

-          They will be consulting highways to see whether it is feasible to have vehicular access as we have positioned.

-          It might be worth appointing a highways consultant to fight our cause – I’ll get a quotation for you.

I which point I sent a despairing email back saying something like "bugger, why can't the county council cuts happen any faster and should we just rip up current design?" See below.  Luckily Tom and Flora is an amazing stroke of positive behaviour both said don't worry it's not that bad rather just the first round or put it another way it's not considered a sprint more of a marathon .... so lets just wait.  Saying that Flora thinks we're going to start the build in 2012 whereas I'm more optimistic and suggest late summer 2011.

This is not the final design but it is getting there.

We also went to the Home and Renovating Show on Saturday which was pretty interesting (also met Tom the architect) but nothing spectacular.  Masses of window, solar panel, oak frame builders companies mixed into the pot a couple of ventilation stands - Mechanical Ventilation Heat Units which we are now pretty certain is a good thing especially as it costs about £60 per year to run and ensures you don't have condensation in the house.  Our current rental cottage was pretty good when we moved in but now it all seems like a howling gale is blowing through the small hallway right into the living area.  I know it's pretty cold outside -2 so this is spurring me into action giving me a good feeling that someday we're be in a warm house that takes a small amount of energy to keep it a pleasant temperature.  What is a pleasant temperature?