Hi all,
Last year I built a porch on the front of my house. I looked into what I was allowed to do without seeking planning permission and attempted to stick to the rules. The porch is now finished, but a few weeks ago I got a letter from the council describing it as an unauthorised porch. Apparently someone had complained and a planning officer had been out to look at it. The letter stated that the porch was 3.24m tall when only allowed to be 3m.
I sought guidance from the planning officer on how this was measured, he initially told me on the phone that it was from the 'base of the wooden structure' to the highest point of the ridge. I checked this measurement and it seems to be slightly over, as in less than 10cm. So I replied to the guy asking whether it would be ok just to fit flatter sitting ridge tiles(changing the pitch of the roof would be a major job now that it's tiled and the inside is all finished).
The planning officer has taken a few weeks to respond to this and is now saying that the height is measuresed from 'natural ground level'. I am not sure what this means. The concrete base of my porch matches the floor level of the house. But my front garden slopes away, so the concretet base if partially exposed especially at the furthest point from the house.
I understand that planning officers have a job to do, but making me make major alterations to the porch which only slightly infringes the rules seems a bit petty.
Can anyone suggest a way to fix this? I assume I am not allowed to alter the ground level surrounding the porch, so that there is a built up area which conceals the concrete base?
Changing th pitch of the roof would pretty much be like starting again on the whole thing.
