Cottage Planning

muingwee

Hi,

We are trying to get planning permission for an extension on our cottage, we are currently living on land in a mobile home, we have now been told that we will need a perculation test for the property even although we have an existing septic tank on the land. Has anyone else had this problem?

Thanks

smashey

muingwee wrote: »

Hi,

We are trying to get planning permission for an extension on our cottage, we are currently living on land in a mobile home, we have now been told that we will need a perculation test for the property even although we have an existing septic tank on the land. Has anyone else had this problem?

Thanks

Welcome to the regulations. That's standard.

No6

If its an old pre any regulation septic tank then yoor co council is availing of your desire to extend to force you to upgrade. If its a recent tank then it should already have planning and possibly a report from a suitable qualified professional stating that it is compliant and giving planing ref's etc may satisfy the planners, talk to them first though. Good Luck.

rayjdav

I've had this problem very recently. One way to go about the "standard" request is to get an engineer, in private practice, ins.. etc to visit site, and have a look at the existing system. If he is satisfied, he can give you a Cert Of Compliance that should? satisfy the Co. Co. The Council are right in what they are asking in fairness though because they dont want unregulated pollution nowadays. Increase in bedroom Nos. (PE) and modern washing facilities etc. Orig tank prob not designed to handle it. What was right then is not necessarily right for now. As said above, if it is a pre SR6. tank, you dont know what it is made of, inc. perc. area. I would strongly advise, unless you are willing to excavte around the tank AND percolation area, submit or concede to an upgraded system. I know it will cost money but factor it in now. Most importantly though, at least you will know what is installed and that it is done correctly. One part of build you want to put in the ground and literally never have to think about for a long time, if ever. imho.

RKQ

This is quite a normal FI request, especially when new bedrooms are proposed as part of an extension.

Has the fact that you are living on site in a Mobile Home caused any problems?
(Permission is required to live temporarily in a mobile home on site)

Retain the service of a Registered Soil Tested, from the Councils approved list, to carry out the test to EPA manual (FAS qualified). Otherwise your Architect, Engineer or Arch Tech might be able to do the test - if its to S.R.6:1991 recommendations and they have full P.I insurance.

Each County differs on the standard they accept - EPA or S.R.6, but most require an EPA test by a qualified Tester who has completed the FAS Course. I hope it all works out.

muingwee

thanks guys for the advice, we cant find the old septic tank on the land so we installed a bio septic tank ourselves without a perculation test, it was installed when we moved into the mobile home and it has been fine, the council are aware we are on the land and have no problems with it just added a bit to our planning application and they are aware of the septic tank but are still insisting on the perculation test for the paper work ;( thanks for the advice will have to keep going with it

Jimbo

You should have got planning for the replacemnt septic tank at the time.
Not surprising that the council want to reguralise the situation now.

It coud have been a stumbling block if you were selling in the future anyway.

davidoco

muingwee wrote: »

........... we installed a bio septic tank ourselves without a perculation test,........ insisting on the percolation test for the paper work

Thankfully we are the stage in this country with domestic sewerage treatment systems that "paper work" is not the reason you are being asked for a percolation test. I'm assuming they are asking for a site assessment which includes the basic percolation test. Your bio tank will have to satisfy the assessing engineer that it can treat the waste to a defined standard.

I can see fun and games ahead for you as unless the bio tank is an accredited system getting an engineer to sign off on it may be difficult.

muingwee

We are lucky, we did not seek planning for it as we were not told at the time, and as we were new to the country we were niave about it. Its a bio septic tank and the council are happy with it as is our engineer but the perculation test is just a formality. Its just a question of waiting again for the test and everything, been three years now and seeing no light at the end of the tunnel we though that because there is a cottage already here and we are only extending it it wouldnt be this much hassel