When is a bungalow not a bungalow? When it’s a building at the centre of a Mirfield planning row.
According to Kirklees Council planners this des res bungalow with a conservatory and open views across a picturesque meadow is, in fact, a garage!
On drawings approved as part of a planning application for 34 new homes the bungalow is listed as a “garage with no windows.”
Residents around the meadow are furious that Kirklees councillors voted through plans which they claim are “fundamentally flawed.”
If the plans submitted by Ben Bailey Homes go ahead the 82-year-old woman’s conservatory will be just over 8ft from a solid brick wall, ruining her view.
Residents from the Lady Heton Action Group say the architect’s drawing has errors and should not have gone through.
They pointed out the mistakes at the Heavy Woollen planning committee – but councillors ploughed ahead regardless.
Peter Morgan, spokesman for Lady Heton Action Group, said: “This is just ridiculous.
“According to Kirklees we have an 82-year-old lady who lives in a garage! Why won’t they listen to us?”
Mr Morgan said that, apart from the mistakes on the drawing, the council had breached its own planning policy, designed to protect residents when new homes are built.
He said that the council’s policy BE12, under its Unitary Development Plan, set down “minimum acceptable distances” between new and existing properties.
The policy states that there should be 21 metres (68ft) between habitable room windows or 12 metres (39ft) between a habitable window and a blank wall or the window of a non-habitable room.
Mr Morgan has measured plots on the plans and says that 29 of the 34 new homes breach the council’s policy.
Apart from the woman’s bungalow in Moor Top being described as a garage, a neighbouring property is said to be in Lady Heton Drive instead of Lady Heton Close.
Mr Morgan said residents had wanted to work with council planners but they had been rebuffed.
“The council is telling us that policy BE12 is very complicated and subject to interpretation but it is actually quite simple and clear in what it says.
“This is the council’s own policy and it is not rocket science. It is a council policy designed to protect existing residents from developers building too close.”
Before the planning committee councillors visited the site and residents staged a silent protest.
Mr Morgan addressed the committee, pointing out what he described as a “fundamentally flawed” application.
Two days before the meeting, the group had sent letters outlining their case to councillors.
Mr Morgan said that when one councillor asked an officer whether the property was a bungalow or a garage he was again assured it was a garage without windows.
“At that point there was uproar in the council chamber,” said Mr Morgan. “Everyone was shouting that he was wrong.
“The chairman, Clr Paul Kane, banged the gavel down and called for order.”
The application was then voted through to shouts of “disgraceful” and “disgusting”.
Another neighbour Tom Bohan stressed that residents were not opposed to building on the land off Kitson Hill Road but wanted the development to be proportionate.
“We never said we didn’t want any development,” he said. “We just want fairness.”
Clr Paul Kane, chairman of the Heavy Woollen planning committee, told the Examiner the plan had been approved but denied it had been rushed through or that councillors hadn’t listened.
He said he had now asked officers to investigate whether the plan was incorrect and if it was the application would come back to the committee.
As for the BE12 policy, Clr Kane said legal advice given to planners was that it did not apply to this development.
Ben Bailey Homes and Leeds-based planning consultants ID Planning declined to comment on the drawing.
In a statement Ben Bailey Homes said: “A full planning application for the site has been submitted and a recommendation for approval was given by the planning committee on April 24.
“We are working closely with planning officers from Kirklees Metropolitan District Council as we await the decision notice and feel it would be inappropriate to comment further whilst this process is ongoing.”
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