Anger over tall story

Aug 28 2005 By The Sunday Sun

Neighbours have complained that a house on their estate has been built against planning permission.

Philip Johnson claims the Bellway house - in a hilly part of Ryhope, Sunderland - is too high because its ground floor is level with his bedroom window.

He says his house will be dwarfed by the huge development at the rear of the new home he moved into two years ago.

Now the council is involved in top-level meetings with the developers to decide what to do.

Philip said: "Bellway started building behind us and I was startled to find out that the ground height was in fact in line with our bedroom window.

"I am worried about privacy, interference with light, view restriction, and devaluation of our property.

"We got the council involved because there were rumours that the building did not conform to planning permission."

I have seen council documents relating to a previous meeting between planners and Bellway.

It states that both parties agreed that the house had been constructed higher than the approval given by the council.

Bellway, however, believe that changes to the construction of the roof will meet the concerns of residents.

More talks are planned after an independent report apparently confirmed that the house was too tall.

Bellway's Paul Metcalf said: "The council are having to decide what course of action to take. We will be having a further meeting with them to discuss matters."

I asked point blank if the house was too tall.

He said: "That's something we are in discussions about. These things are never clear-cut and there is an element of interpretation.

"We will try to give you a further comment in due course."