Planners give consent for building in undeveloped front gardens

Torridge residents say it's "massive" and visible

Planners have agreed that an eight by four metre garage built in a front garden on a village street in Torridge can stay despite there being a covenant in place prohibiting it.

A retrospective application for the double garage and store at Derriton Road in Pyworthy, which one local resident described as a “massive agricultural building”, was given approval by Torridge District Council’s plans committee because they said it was well-hidden behind hedges and fences.

Planning officers said they didn’t understand why a covenant restricting alterations, modifications and additions to the homes at Derriton Road was put in place and in any case it could not be considered when determining a planning application.

A similar building was removed from the site a few years ago after it was refused retrospective consent and the decision upheld at appeal. At the time it was thought to have had a detrimental effect on the street scene.

But this time the committee was advised to support the application by officers, who said that over the years many fences and boundary treatments of differing heights and materials had been put in place along the road, which were now screening the building.

They said the timber and metal construction was only really visible from the car park on the opposite side of the road to the property.

Lesley Wheeler, who lives in Derriton Road, was one of seven people who objected to the building. She said there were concerns that it would be used as a residential property in the future as she claimed certain alterations had been made to it to allow that to happen.

She said there had been several residents who wanted to build in their front gardens but they had always been declined or advised not to.

And she added: “I agree that there are more fences now but this massive agricultural building is still clearly visible as you walk or drive past it and it is not in keeping with the street, it is completely mismatched.”

Pyworthy Parish Council objected to the development on the basis of the existing covenant, which ‘prohibits the building of structures in the front gardens’.

Cllr Wendy Lo-Vel (Green, Northam) said approving this could open the floodgates with a whole stream of residents applying to build in their front gardens.

She was told that there was no precedent in planning.

Cllr Doug Smith (Lib Dem, Great Torrington) called it “creeping development” and Cllr Kit Hepple (Ind, Milton and Tamarside) and Cllr Rosemary Lock (Con, Two Rivers and Three Moors)  said they wanted conditions to be made watertight so the building could not be used for residential purposes in perpituity. This was agreed.

Members were told this was a former local authority home which often had covenants on them. The applicant, Ms S Reeves, will need to get permission to get the covenant lifted or she may have to take the building down, said officers.