The garden’s height was dramatically increased – causing concern (Image: Vale of Glamorgan Council)
A privacy row has engulfed a residential road in Wales – with a neighbour now ordered to remove a platform terrace in his garden.
The planning issue has come to a head in Dinas Powys, Wales, and has centred around the raised decking, with artifcial grass and a barbecue. The garden’s transformation has however catastropically backfired as the entire platform must now be removed.
The Vale of Glamorgan’s planning committee heard that the height had been increased and the garden wall was now at 1.2m, significantly reducing the privacy of the neighbour.
The enforcement notice on the property will require the homeowner to lower their garden to no more than 300mm above the original ground level.
The hearing this week came after the to either reduce the height of their terrace or submit a planning application seeking to explore other options.
The homeowner’s new garden will need to be dismantled (Image: Vale of Glamorgan Council)
Council officials visited in August 2023 after a complaint was made about the garden work. Officers noticed that a new tier had been built in the garden, reducing the height of the fence dividing the property and the neighbour from 1.8m to 1.2m.
In a report on the proposed planning enforcement notice, the council said this resulted in a “significant degree of overlooking”.
The same report states that the homeowner wrote to the council in September 2023 to dispute that the level of the garden had been raised by more than 300mm and that planning permission was required.
Cllr Christine Cave, who sits on the planning committee, said the council had been hypocritical to intervene.
Cllr Cave likened the situation to what happened at the former Eagleswell Primary School site in Llantwit Major, where portable homes were set up through special planning powers.
She said: “When we made the site visit [to the school], we actually asked why the ground had been built up and why the buildings could then be overlooking into peoples’ gardens.
“This seems a bit hypocritical to me here, that the council have done exactly the same on a much grander scale with huge overlooking of peoples’ gardens and now we are being told it is not permissible.”
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Vale of Glamorgan Council allowed the development of the site at Llantwit Major through what is known as permitted development rights.
The planning powers are usually used in an emergency – in this case, the housing of Ukrainian refugees – but the scheme must eventually get planning permission within 12 months of the date of construction starting.
The council’s planning committee voted to give the site, made up of 90 units, permission to remain in place for a minimum of five more years in July.
Residents were unhappy the plans had been allowed to go through without any consultation, with some of the units just metres away from residents’ gardens. Some are able to see into the gardens of the portable homes from their upstairs windows.
Vale of Glamorgan Council operational manager for planning and building control, Liam Jones, said the committee could only consider the merits of the enforcement notice application in front of them and did not comment on the Eagleswell development.
He said: “Here we have a situation where the homeowner has erected a surface that allows permanent direct overlooking into the neighbouring property.
“I don’t propose to consider the merits of a different scheme considered by this committee, so we have to treat this on its own merit.”