Kept in the dark...

This is a pic taken by Mme MB, but I at least edited it in The Gimp... Oh and to blur the phone number. I'm not in the habit of sharing peoples phone numbers to the t'internet, however tempting it might be in this case.

We have known for a while that there were plans to build on thin strip of land next door to us, which has been alotments since I moved here in 1997. We're in the Paris region and as of late houses have mushroomed everywhere in our village, all on vacated or unused change of use land. Like that next door.
However, the size of the land is quite small - it is very narrow. Which means anything built on it will mean the side wall of a house will be the boundary. This happened on the other side of us, when our neighbour sold off the back half of his garden. Where a house was built at the side of our garage in 2009. That is right on the boundary too.

Mme MB took part in the survey meeting with the other neighbours last year, who were far from pleased about having two houses shoe-horned in between our two houses and theirs. I don't blame them. In particular the owner of the private part of the lane behind our house, who didn't like the idea of one of the houses having access onto it. Our boundary there marks the limit between the private part of this lane and the communal part which runs behind our back garden wall.

After the meeting took place, it wasn't clear on what was going to happen. Except the owner of the land, who doesn't live in the area, wanted to sell the land for construction. Apparently it was on the Bon Coin (French classifieds site) and a couple had been interested in buying some of the land to build on it. The intention was to build one or maybe two houses on the land - but the land owners were not forthcoming with any info at that time.

I think the neighbours and ourselves thought it all a pipe dream given the above factors. But here in the Paris region we are aware that any small postage stamp sized piece of land will have something built on it.
The local mairie has already given planning permission.

Anyway, a few days ago, this panel was added to the door into the alotment - which gives the impression that all is done and dusted. We've yet to see any plans or any communication about how construction will impact us. Notably that we'd have to get rid of a 40 odd metre long laurel hedge which forms the boundary between our property and theirs.

Watch this space...