Vale Council has been accused of hypocrisy for taking action against a Dinas Powys resident over changes to their garden.
At a planning committee meeting last Thursday, the council decided to issue the owner of 12 Chapel Close with an enforcement notice for raising the level of their garden without permission.
The council said the increased height of the garden by about 600mm above the original ground level has affected the privacy of the homeowner’s neighbour.
The enforcement notice on the property will require the homeowner to lower their garden to a height of no more than 300mmm above the original ground level.
Cllr Christine Cave, who sits on the planning committee, likened the situation to what happened at the former Eagleswell Primary School site in Llantwit Major, where portable homes were allowed to be set up through special planning powers.
Cllr Cave said: “When we made the site visit [to Eagleswell] and 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.”
Vale 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 at least 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.
The council's 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.”
Vale Council conducted a site visit to 12 Chapel Close in August 2023 after a complaint was made about the garden work.
When they arrived, council officers noticed that a new tier had been built in the garden, reducing the height of the fence dividing the property and 11 Chapel Close 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.
Mr Jones said at the latest planning committee meeting that the property owner did not agree to reduce the level of the land on his property or submit a planning application seeking to explore other options.
A Vale of Glamorgan Council spokesperson said: “Every planning application is different with each considered on its merits."
“In this case, it was decided that the development would involve and unacceptable loss of privacy for a neighbouring property, so the application was rejected.”
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