Met with the man from the Planning dept on site today, which was useful and productive. I found out that we actually dont need to do the foundations for the garage to comply with the clause that says you've got to make reasonable progress before 3 years is up - because the construction of the house means we have done that already, so its nice to know we can work on that at our own pace now. He measured the height and looked round and said there were no problems. There are 3 outstanding planning clauses, two relate to the drive and one to the rainwater drainage. He was happy with the drive inside the gates, and he just wanted me to let him know a timetable for resurfacing the tarmac part outside the gates. And I need to submit the calc for the soakaway, which is fine :)

Speaking of the soakaway, we started building it last night, but it got dark before we could finish so there's a bit more trimming to do to get the last crate to fit in there, and the pipe is in slightly the wrong place so needs a bend added to it, then we can backfill it and cover it over with earth - and for the first time in well over 2.5 years there wont be a big hole in our back garden :)