We ran into an interesting obstacle during a recent renovation project. It didn’t come from a source, or for a reason, that we saw coming in advance either. It came right at the end of the project, where we had done extensive work on the inside of a property, opening up several rooms to create an open plan living area.
We’d also repainted the outside of the house too, which required us to meet certain criteria and agree changes in advance (of which there were very few). This was due to the building’s location in an area of outstanding natural beauty, on the edge of the Peak District National Park. As we discovered, they provide guidance on such matters, but we did overlook a vital piece of information on their website.
On that page, we noticed that they referenced satellite dishes specifically, however, we assumed that as they were so specifically referring to dishes, aerials must be fine. So, imagine our surprise after having a Freeview aerial erected to hear that the owners had received a notice that the aerial must be removed and remain so until planning consent had been granted.
In general, you don’t need any kind of permission to fit an aerial to your home, even though many of the newer digital varieties do admittedly create a bit of an eyesore. The problem here is where the home is located, where special permission is required above and beyond what is needed elsewhere.
Fortunately, we found a good workaround in this case, by using an internal, powered aerial in the loft space of the property. It needed a built in booster due to the signal degradation passing through the roofing, but other than that it’s worked perfectly.
So beware, if you think you might need extra permission, contact your local planning department in advance. There’s no suggestion we’ve heard of that permission will be refused, but you might want to consider alternative options from the outset!