The Planners Are Coming - Subject to Approval

New series looking at building planning processes aims to help householders, take wrong-doers to task and save our surroundings from ill-judged developments. A disabled pensioner is shocked to discover that she has no legal right to stop the car garage behind her East London flat building and blocking her view. With the help of her son she fights to save her garden oasis. In North London, Senior Planning Officer Fabien Bernard-Gaudin finds something being built without planning permission. When he arrives on site he discovers that, amazingly, the proposed nine flats are finished and about to go on the market. Calling in the Planning Enforcement Team may mean the developers have to undo all their hard and expensive work and they won't do that without a battle. It is not just buildings that come under the control of planning departments, but also things like mobile phone masts. In a conservation area, Meenal Mehta tries to rally her community to save it from the relentless march of new technology.