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Want to watch satellite TV? May need planning permission in historic Avenues (UK)
RESIDENTS with newly installed satellite dishes in one area of Hull face having to apply for planning permission to keep them up.
The move in the Avenues area of the city has been agreed by councillors after a campaign by the Avenues And Pearson Park Residents’ Association.
Association members claimed the historic Conservation Area was being ruined by an increasing number of dishes being installed on the front of houses without planning consent.
Now, members of Hull City Council’s planning committee have decided to write to residents with recently installed dishes informing them they need to apply for official permission to keep them in place.
Each application is expected to cost a householder about £150.
Committee chairman Craig Woolmer said the council was trying to strike a balance between helping residents and fulfilling its own statutory obligations to ensure planning policies in Conservation Areas were followed. He said: “Enforcement is this case will be a last resort.
“We want to work with the residents, advise them what needs to be done and help them with the planning process.”
Councillor Woolmer said ignorance of the fact that the Avenues was a Conservation Area would be no excuse.
He said: “It has been a Conservation Area longer than I have been alive.
“We are not looking to be heavy-handed on this, but no one can really say they didn’t know it was Conservation Area when they moved in.”
The new policy is expected to apply to all satellite dishes installed in the area over the past four years.
It will also apply to new dishes being put up in future.
The committee heard that not all householders would be required to apply for retrospective planning permission.
Instead, each case will be judged on its merits with the option of moving a dish to
another part of the building being explored with each resident involved.
Some dishes could also be allowed to stay where they are depending on their location.
Association member Bob Sandham, who carried out his own survey of satellite dishes in the area, said he was pleased with the decision.
He said: “I estimate there are about 90 houses affected by this.
“Although we as an association have been lobbying for this, it’s actually something the council is required to do in Conservation Areas.
“We have actually been asking them to do this since 2002.”
Residents in the Avenues and Pearson Park Conservation Area will initially have three months to respond to the council over the requirement to
apply for planning permission once they are contacted by the council.
Councillors have also agreed to review the progress of the initiative after three months.
The policy will not apply to other conservation areas in the city.
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