The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
A Holbeach neighbour disgruntled at a builder failing to follow permitted plans for two homes next to her property has vowed to take South Holland District Council to court.
The authority’s planning committee voted retrospectively to allow amended plans for the semi-detached homes on Battlefields Lane South at its meeting on Wednesday, February 7.
Ann Kidd alerted planning officers that the homes had not been built by developer Proway Building Ltd in accordance with the plans that were initially permitted in 2014.
Ms Kidd is particularly concerned about drainage of the land due to the ground having been raised higher than was listed in the approved plans.
She said of the application being passed: “It makes a mockery of the whole system.
“I will be pushing on, I believe that the next stage is a judicial review and I am hoping this farce can be exposed.
“It was obviously not the required outcome but it will not deter me from getting to the bottom of the issue.”
Several councillors expressed sympathy for Ms Kidd but it was voted through, 11 votes to two with one councillor refusing to vote.
Coun Angela Newton told the committee: “The test is probably would we have allowed this if faced the first time and probably the answer is no.
“I wonder why these different heights weren’t noticed when it was inspected.
“The developer deviated from the plans probably to suit themselves and the officers did not pick it up. I’m concerned about that.”
Coun Paul Foyster, added: “I find it sad that a developer can do more or less what they like and no-one checks up on them.”
But Coun Andrew Tennant added: “It’s an example of how distressing an application can be for a neighbour.
“The objector has gone to a good deal of trouble to go into the detail on planning laws and the application and done everything she can to get this altered.
“I do feel for the objector but I’m drawn to the conclusion from the planning officers.
“We’re not looking at a scenario for a chalet bungalow and a three storey house was built.
“The officers summed it up by saying the variations to the plans are not significant and that’s where I sit too.
“I don’t see the changes as being that significant.”
UPDATE : For those of you who may find yourself in my position, I wanted to keep you updated of my progress.
I did indeed proceed with both a planning lawyer and a barrister to draft a pre-action letter to the SHDC. This is a requirement of the process before judicial review. My Legal team found a number of discrepancies with the application and the process that was followed and those findings were listed within the correspondence to the SHDC Legal team.
Currently the application remains undecided on the portal, I have been advised that those plans will not be approved and therefore a judicial review is not required at this point as no plans have been approved to contest in court!.
However, we are now awaiting a new application for the development and will no doubt be seen at further planning committee meetings for my 3 minutes of council time.
I would urge you if you find yourself in my position, don’t give up ! Its been a very long and hard process and has taken up a lot of time and money and is far from over, but if it helps to highlight that homeowners can be put at risk by missing processes or misunderstanding of planning duties then the only way to get things changed is to get them recognised. I will continue to update with the progress and hope that my story will help others to realise that you do have options when faced with poor decisions affecting your home and lifestyle.