Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
274 Wightman Road N8 0LX
Evening
There is extensive building work going on at 274 Wightman Road (N8 0LX). I was walking past today and the front door was open while the builders brought out wheelbarrow loads of stuff to put in a skip round the corner.
I looked inside the front door and there was a huge bank of newly installed electricity metres in the hall. I counted EIGHT but there may have been more – I didn’t want to stand and stare too much. Someone is converting the property into an HMO.
There are two old applications on the Haringey Planning website. One is from February 2000 and is a REFUSAL for “Retention of ground floor rear extension”. An older one appears to be the conversion of the house into two flats.
The Council Tax Valuation List lists two flats in the property. The Land Registry lists two freeholds for the address, which I don’t understand but perhaps someone can explain that to me. There are no leaseholds registered there.
Anyway, I will be writing to Haringey Planning on Monday to report this. I’ll post the response here.
Laura
There is extensive building work going on at 274 Wightman Road (N8 0LX). I was walking past today and the front door was open while the builders brought out wheelbarrow loads of stuff to put in a skip round the corner.
I looked inside the front door and there was a huge bank of newly installed electricity metres in the hall. I counted EIGHT but there may have been more – I didn’t want to stand and stare too much. Someone is converting the property into an HMO.
There are two old applications on the Haringey Planning website. One is from February 2000 and is a REFUSAL for “Retention of ground floor rear extension”. An older one appears to be the conversion of the house into two flats.
The Council Tax Valuation List lists two flats in the property. The Land Registry lists two freeholds for the address, which I don’t understand but perhaps someone can explain that to me. There are no leaseholds registered there.
Anyway, I will be writing to Haringey Planning on Monday to report this. I’ll post the response here.
Laura
Tags for Forum Posts: Wightman Road, hmos
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by RST on
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Hi Ben
What is the regulation? We have people next door doing work but do they have to stop at 1pm on Saturday as well? Is there a cyt off that covers DIY (now feeling guilty about our DIY at weekends!).
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Permalink Reply by Anette on
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Well done Laura, let us know how you're getting on. It would help if others who live nearby do the same as well.
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Sounds to me like a dead cert for an conversion to multiple dwellings.
This sounds very much like a case I've been on for about a year in Hewitt Road. I reported it at the start of last year when there were obvious works going on that looked way beyond a heavy make over. But it was only the addition of five meters on the exterior of the house that got enforcement to come and have a look.
I've felt that ringing them every few weeks has kept things moving and finally at the end of last year an order to convert back was made by the Council. It's now being appealed to the planning inspector.
Certainly worth developing a relationship with Patrick Sullivan 020 8489 5123. Then buckle in for a long ride.
My experience of planning enforcement in my case was that, with some prodding, they seem to have done a good enough job.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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This is not a criticism of Patrick Sullivan. But it worries me if one or two well-regarded officers start getting more calls. We need whole teams to be effective and responsive.
Otherwise you get the problem which I call: Soft door; hard door. In other words, you find cases where users/ customers of an organisation access helpful known individuals - sometimes through informal routes. While the rest of that outfit plods on regardless.
This is unfair. Every service user should get good service - not just people 'in the know'. It's dysfunctional - because it allows mediocrity to persist. And it isn't sustainable; the high performing individuals will become overloaded. In the injelitant culture which infects large parts of Haringey council, they may also be the target of envy.
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Permalink Reply by matt on
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And it isn't sustainable; the high performing individuals will become overloaded. In the injelitant culture which infects large parts of Haringey council, they may also be the target of envy.
This is an extremely important point Alan. I've witnessed this happening. The reaction of other team members is to allow that 'high performing individual' to take the strain and wait until he or she cracks under the pressure. Ultimately such high performing individuals leave for elsewhere and we're back to square one. It's a vicious circle in some service areas not controlled proactively enough by the team managers (or even higher) in ... as I say, some service areas.
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Very good point, well made. Patrick Sullivan is a good 'un, but surely there are others in planning enforecement we can go to as well?
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Permalink Reply by Karen Alexander on
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Thanks for picking this one up - I will also be contacting the council asking them to give it their urgent attention.
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Permalink Reply by Alison P on
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I might have got this wrong but isn't this the department that has quite a high staff turnover and a number of staff on fixed term contracts? If so, surely this just adds to the problem of people coming to rely on one or two people who really know their stuff? Apologies if I'm misremembering - remember something about this coming up at the David Lammy meeting last month.
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All, as far as I'm aware we DO rely on just one (or is it two) officers, like it or not. I'm pretty sure that Patrick told me has a huge area to cover and we're in his area. Check it, Alan/someone; I may have that wrong.
As to what's fair, to be honest if one of has a planning problem which may severely impact on our quality of life and we know there's a good chance of getting it fixed by officer X, which of us will make the choice not to do access that officer?
Should we rely on self-sacrificing citizens to help ration the good officer time around or does the burden of responsibility to fix what's broken lie elsewhere?
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