I'm wondering 'how long is too long?' when it comes to local authority building control.

Our plans for a stable conversion were passed back in 2007 and kept 'live' by the installation of a septic tank etc. Building control fees were paid and work was approved by our local authority building inspector. Having been hard hit by the recession, things had to be put on hold but we're now in a position to continue.

We decided to modify things slightly (use steels in the roof to maximise first floor headroom & space) so had some calculations done & sent these off to our local building control to be checked.

The reply came that because our use of steels represented a significant change to our original plans they would have to be referred to a neighbouring council, since the original plans were approved as part of a LABC partnership (neighbouring council building control approved documents and local council carried out inspections).

We sent the calculations off to that neighbouring council BC 15 weeks ago but, despite phone calls and emails requesting an update, haven't even had an acknowledgement. Local council has been quite helpful and we learned through them that neighbouring council had lost our original plans , so local council sent replacements several weeks ago. Local council tell us that their hands are tied and that we can't proceed with our build until they hear from neighbouring council.

On telephoning neighbouring council building control we're told that Mr H, who leads the team, is working from home and only contactable by email. Mr H doesn't respond to our emails, though we've now sent him a few.

Okay so Covid 19 will have inevitably led to some delays and we do understand that but, after 15 weeks without any feedback at all, we feel as if we're being ignored. If we'd been representing a large building firm which had more clout then I'm sure our situation would have been resolved in an instant. It's not a pleasant feeling.

We've offered to pay more to cover the cost of checking the calculations.
We've offered to employ a private company to check the calculations but this isn't permissible.
We've offered to start again and take on a private company for the whole project but this isn't permissible because early work was inspected by local authority BC.
We've contacted LABC partnership scheme who tell us they have no control over participating authorities.
We're even considering re-applying for planning because that would then give us the ability to use a private building control company.

Our builder can only wait so long before starting another job, which will mean a delay of at least another 6 months before he can start on ours.

This is not a good advertisement for local authority building control and I will never use LABC again. I know a private firm would have been much more responsive.

Bruce **