A WOMAN who turned her garage into a room has been told she must restore it to its original use. Planning permission had been granted in November 2000 for 17 homes to be built at Remus Close off Holyrood Crescent in St Albans provided no alterations were

A WOMAN who turned her garage into a room has been told she must restore it to its original use.

Planning permission had been granted in November 2000 for 17 homes to be built at Remus Close off Holyrood Crescent in St Albans provided no alterations were subsequently made to the garages without permission of the district council.

This condition was applied because the shortage of car parking spaces on the road would be compromised if people used their garages for other purposes.

But Clare O'Donnell, who lives in the close, claimed she was told she did not need planning permission to convert her garage into a room.

She applied for retrospective planning permission which was refused in April 2007. When she appealed, the planning inspector upheld the council's decision on the grounds that road safety might be compromised.

Her appeal was dismissed last February and council officers issued an enforcement notice in January this year ordering her to restore the garage to its original purpose.

But Mrs O'Donnell is now appealing against the enforcement notice on the grounds that she was misinformed about the need for planning permission and that her neighbours did not object to the conversion and it had not caused parking problems.