kenny

It's actually bought more bees and birds to the garden than any feeder or flower has.

£25 for a pond liner and a few aquatic plants has been great to watch. Dog also likes watching....

We built this last year using a pond liner. We bought a hornwort from Palmer's and it cleared the water in 24 hours. We have a real problem with hair algae and no amount of treatment helps except pulling it out. As our plants become established they use the available nutrients and the growth slows. As for wildlife, you will get mosquito larvae this year, whilst rank these are the food for everything else. You will also get diving beetles and doodlebugs fairly quickly. A good source of tadpoles is the canal near blaby. We cheated and put some in last year. Have hundreds of froglets this year and we no longer get slugs in the garden. We have our first lot of dragonfly and damselfly larvae, it's cool watching them eat the tadpoles. More plants the better would be my suggestion!

To add to this, you obviously seem like you aren't sure where to turn for support. As such, visiting the YMCA would be of help even if they cannot assist with your short term accommodation issues. They provide a variety of services to help people in trouble stabilise their lives and could be a helpful avenue to you generally. https://www.ymca.org.uk/about/what-we-do

I once found our neighbour sleeping in our shed and the homeless services for middle aged males is very poor. They don't consider you to be vulnerable in any way so they don't want to help. Have you called the local YMCA? The one in Leicester is very very good, but often full. Though in this scenario, whilst waiting for a room to get sorted, I would look at Airbnb. You can get rooms for as low as £21 per night which might be enough to tide you over.

Arriva also blame rush hour traffic as if its different each day.

I catch the bus from Blaby when im working in town and the buses are empty. My wife has stuck to driving and its back up to an hour. The issue is clearly that people have not yet returned to public transport use. That and the fact that it isn't very good and is very expensive.

Sort of. It uses a floating raft on screw piles. The only digging is to scrape the topsoil away to allow heave protection to be installed. So they use a digger to remove 150-200mm and nothing else. This protects the primary roots from damage. The screw piles prevent damage to the roots as they are installed and ensure that no weight is applied to the ground that may 'stress' them. This is usually enough to satisfy the tree officer and their precious RPAs.

You do have the option of no-dig construction which can assist with the tree issue. It might be worth a chat with the planning office about whether the tree is going to be an issue so you can drop in that nugget as a potential option.

Am 39 and had my first pfizer jab at the racecourse. Very well organised all round.

My thoughts exactly. All of the places on the list are places I have visited or would like to. Shame I have a baby on the way!

Since the charges, it all goes in the black bin from now. It's a crazy set-up. Should have taped it together or put in a bin liner and put in the general waste bin

My SNES and Megadrive are on C36 and working fine on my LG. Assumed it was my N64 playing up so I bought another with the same result. Might try a different TV!

Slow to this thread so apologies! How have you got your N64 working on a modern TV? I have 7 other retro consoles hooked up without issue but my N64 will not play ball. I've tried a scart adapter and the aerial tuner won't find it?

The walls upstairs being brick means they probably support the ceiling joists over. So you won't be able to remove them without some structural works . (i'm guessing its a 1930's build). It will involve installing a steel/timber beam at ceiling level which will be fairly minor works. The airing cupboard can be removed without issue unless it strangely follows to ground floor in masonry. To check your stairs work you can use the following tool - https://www.stairbox.com/ You may find that your existing stairs are not building regs compliant, so I would match the goings and risers to your existing stair or you will find you don't have the roof to the staircase in.

Its a nice idea. However, the roads and drains will not have been built to adoptable standards so won't be taken on even if there is a landmark case. All those block paved turning areas at the end or off the sides of the main roads are usually unadoptable. It is the planners in consultation with highways that decide how much of a scheme will be adopted but im not sure what criteria they use to decide where it starts/stops. This would be a good way to go and would be worth a discussion with the management company. My in-laws own a flat that is managed by the residents association and they are always doing works such as replacing roofs etc. They are proactive and have a vested interest in the property being well maintained.

You are correct. Much of the money paid goes to form a contingency should major works be required to the roads or drains. Estates are usually managed by management agents (which charge fees or profits) but they can also be self managed by committee of the house owners. This is rare as developers can't be arsed to set this up and the owners equally don't want the responsibility. A lack of transparency for the money is an issue and the owners should know how the finances work. The biggest con going is leasehold housing whereby you pay ground rent on the land the house is built on. This practice is appalling and has no reasonable reason for existing.

No surprise actually. They will need to justify that the extension won't have an effect on the roots and the water uptake of the tree. You will be disappointed by your 4 page report with a load of photocopied appendices I suspect! Just have to hope that the tree guy doesn't scupper your extension or ask for a no-dig solution for it.

That's the problem with trees and clay soils not the inspector! Always worth getting advice from an engineer and maybe some soils testing done when trees are present.

Asking your builder is the best advice. Not all private inspectors are good ( mine was crap). Council ones are cheaper and will be my choice on future projects. They have a bad rep on the basis of previous performance, but now they compete with private inspectors they are typically much better.

I crawled round the void on my back and did it from the underside as the void was around 300mm.Unpleasant job.

Have they priced on providing a piled foundation? If not then they may have priced on regular 1m deep foundations then sting you later once the Building Inspector shows up. If the tree is this close and you have clay soils, then I would get a Structural Engineer to look at the design before you get builder prices. If you are still waiting on planning, then you may also find that the conditions relate to this tree which can be a load of hassle as they get precious about the trees roots.

All you can do is speak to previous customers or speak to your Architect. They will know the good ones in the area. The only other advice is that you can expect to wait your turn and the cheapest is rarely the best. If a builder is available quickly in the current market, it means they are either no good, or you are very very fortunate and another project has fallen through.

As you have an agreement with your neighbour, you can build on the party wall line. In effect you are extending the original party wall between the houses. The reason it is rarely done like this is due to ownership issues, you often see each neighbour building their own cavity wall within their own boundary which is wasteful. If your father ever sold his property, then the purchaser could extend and 'use the wall' as their own as they would effectively own the leaf on their side of the red line boundary. Its a sensible way to go as you are in a position to do it, so crack on. As others have said, regular planning rules will apply depending on the size of extension you are planning and the area you are building in.

I try to stay out of this thread for obvious reasons, but the Hinckley tier has been set as they use the hospitals in Leicester and Nuneaton which are in tier 3. The issue as everything with the government is that there is logic applied but they do not explain themselves.