Random

I did think about changing it, but there wasn’t much benefit as I wouldn’t put both cars in anyway.

It could have been worse, we looked at a couple of similar size houses and the double garages were tandem, so a lot less useful for putting a car in and two spaces one behind the other on the drive, so you’d always be moving cars around.

The internal length of the garage is at least 6m with the new doors, so not an issue fitting anything in, but the side door does restrict what we could get in there if we still wanted to use that for access. Which we do.

Just buy/rent a barn.

Yeah.  . I revised my requirements from 8ft 6in to 9ft after seeing that. He has got my dream set up though. 

You know this is something I've never thought about. My mum's house was built in the 70s and all the houses on her estate have double doors and did have from new. Our house was built in 2000 and all the houses on our estate have either a single garage or a two single doors - no double doors anywhere. Our house was supposed to have two single doors but before completion internal alterations meant one side became a larger loo and family room, leaving a single garage.

Apparently, aesthetically, people prefer two single doors to one large one.

I bought a second hand car seat and had a local fabricator attach it to a second hand office seat base for Sara. The seat was ten quid and the base zilch. Fabricator charged fifty quid. Now they might charge less if the work is scarce.

I have a Hermann Miller Mirra - cost £350 second-hand and it is amazingly comfortable - especially when I am in it 10hrs a day

Our house was built in 2008 and the doors have 2.12/2.14m clearance, so are wide enough for most cars without having to fold the mirrors in.

The craziest planning policy I’ve heard about in this area is 4 bed detached houses in MK only being allowed a car port or a single parking space, apparently that’s to encourage families to only own one car. 

I do think two single doors look a lot than one large one but they clearly not as practical. 

The parking situation is ridiculous in most new estates.
We looked at a nice house in Glenrothes (nice for Glenrothes, anyway) but as soon as we pulled into the estate, let alone the street, I knew we wouldn't even consider buying it. Every house had 2 cars on the drive and at least another car or van parked with 2 wheels on the kerb.
As it was summer a few had the garage door open and those were all used for storage, definitely no cars in them.

Why would I want to buy a house where every time you went out you had to slalom down the street?

I get the ideological part but surely the planners need to open their eyes?
All that happens is that some part of the garden gets concreted over to provide additional parking for more than the deemed car quantity.

Deciding that if you give people nowhere to park then they will clearly get rid of their cars is criminal in it's stupidity. And to all us normal people obviously a non-starter. It is almost as if planning policy wishes to ignore the past 100 years of societal development and un-invent the motor car. Like rabid environmentalists. I mean the hoi-poloi should really all still be walking to work and doffing their caps at their betters....

I might've said this before but years ago we were considering building a house. Spoke to the local planners and they said a 1 1/2 storey (i.e. with dormer windows upstairs, would be fine.
We lived about 6 miles north of Perth and we were 2 miles away from the A9 in a dip in the rolling countryside - completely out of sight until you were almost at the house. The country road that went past the house was on a loop to nowhere and very quiet.

If you drive up the A9 today, get to Bankfoot and look to your left there's a steadings redevelopment in clear view on a slight rise about 500 yds from the road, consisting of 3 storey properties in plain sight. So much for planning rules


When we put that house on the market the first offer we got was from a couple who worked in planning and building control but they subsequently withdrew as they said we were in a flood zone.
A year or 2 later building work started at the old fever hospital site on the edge of Bridge of Earn - a couple of miles south of Perth - which, as every local person knows, IS on the flood zone and if there's rain for more than about 5 minutes the fields round there very quickly become waterlogged.

These 2 decisions were made by the same planning authority and that's the level of stupid you're dealing with.


Years ago I read that the Dutch were in the forefront of social engineering of new housing estates, creating them with no pavements and snaking roads through the development all in the name of reducing car use. I thought it was being done in the name of pollution but with the advance of electric cars that now seems pointless.

I like their optimism.
We had some rain last night so I know there will be large puddles in the fields round there, they don't need to wait for a 100 year event, nor even a 100 days.......

The biggest bugbear on ours is that the road through it has several blind bends which are too narrow for two cars to pass and there have been a lot of near misses by those who fly around the place without considering the possibility that another car may be coming the other way. Add in the people who park their cars right on the corner because to park in a safer position would mean having to walk almost 20 meters extra to get to their front doors and it can be an utter nightmare. There's been a couple of occasions when we've missed out on bin day because the binmen have been blocked from getting through by inconsiderate parking.

It was comedy gold. Unfortunately, parish councils often attract a certain type and Hanforth seems to have more than its fair share.

I expect a Parish Council sitcom to be n somebody's todo list after that.....