Garden-shed victory

COMMON sense has prevailed according to a homeowner whose retrospective planning permission for a garden shed was granted at a meeting this week. A planning committee agreed on Monday that Winfried and Odile Haag-Lima should be able to keep the shed in th

COMMON sense has prevailed according to a homeowner whose retrospective planning permission for a garden shed was granted at a meeting this week.

A planning committee agreed on Monday that Winfried and Odile Haag-Lima should be able to keep the shed in the garden of their home in Moreton End Lane in Harpenden.

They put up the 3.5 metre by 6.5 metre shed in July without realising that they needed planning permission but a council enforcement officer who later visited the site explained they did. After Mr and Mrs Haag-Lima submitted their planning application it was recommended for refusal by Harpenden Town Council at a meeting in September after a neighbour claimed that the structure was an intrusion of privacy.

But it wasn't until October 9 - the day before the call-in deadline - that Harpenden West district councillor Allen Chamberlain was contacted by the neighbour with those concerns.

He had no time to visit the site and could not view the plans online due to computer problems so he called in the application as a precaution.

Councillors on the Plans North committee visited the site over the weekend ahead of the meeting, at which Mrs Haag-Lima and the concerned neighbour spoke.

The committee granted the application which a council planning officer had recommended for approval.