The solicitor

I am considering buying a lakeside holiday lodge. It is being sold on a 125-year licence, as, due to the nature of the planning permission, a lease is not possible. Is this a safe investment? Should I be concerned?

RJ, by e-mail

A “licence” is used to get around planning restrictions imposed by authorities on new developments, and is most commonly employed for holiday properties.

A licence offers lesser rights than a lease or a freehold, but it is still a legally binding contract, which can be sued upon. So your various concerns about acquiring this property can be largely allayed. However, you should seek the advice of a specialist solicitor before signing anything.

To reassure yourself further, you could request that a special clause be written into the document to deal with the automatic renewal or extension of it, using a set valuation formula to allow for inflation over the years.

Simon Thomas is a partner at Thomas Legal Group; thomaslegalgroup.co.uk

The planner

I live in a small village that is blighted by the noise of lorries speeding to and from a local landfill site. We have complained to our parish council and this has led to occasional visits by a police mobile speed camera patrol, but these have not had any real impact. What can we do?

AD, Warwickshire

You need the support of the parish council, the Highways Agency and the police to make any real progress. The parish council can call a meeting of representatives of the various public bodies to get things started, and arrange a meeting with the landfill site operator with a view to setting up a local liaison committee. They can consider supporting — with cash from the operator and the council — the case for installing a fixed, radar-operated sign that lights up with the speed of each vehicle. These have been found to be effective at reducing speed.

The parish council can also set up — in conjunction with the police — a Community Speed Watch team to monitor traffic using a mobile radar “gun”. In this way, the police can register the individual vehicles that are regularly speeding.

Michael Haslam OBE is a director of Michael Haslam Associates; hmhaslam@btopenworld.com

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