Does not meet planning requirements
Gavin McEwan, Local Democracy Reporter
06:00, 15 Aug 2025
Beacon Cottage from the A449 Ledbury-Malvern road and inset, the planned garden pod (Nick Joyce Architects, from application)(Image: Local Democracy Reporting Service)
A Herefordshire man has been told he can’t have a deluxe spherical “pod” in his garden.
Gary Crotaz of Beacon Cottage, Colwall near Malvern, applied in June for a lawful development certificate confirming the pod was acceptable in planning terms.
It was “in full compliance” with the relevant legislation regarding its size, form and location, his application (number 251770) claimed.
Measuring 3.3 metres across and 2.6m high, the pod was to have been connected to the cottage, lying over 20 metres away, by a protected cable laid alongside a new path.
Accompanying plans indicate it was to have been the Grande Deluxe Chic model from Warwickshire-based Ornate Garden, priced at £26,995.
(Image: Local Democracy Reporting Service)
But planning officer Chloe Allen-Hewitt has now ruled that it was “not conclusive” from this and previous applications that the pod’s location lay within the curtilage of the cottage, “or that it has acquired rights under planning law for use as a domestic garden”.
Indeed the spot “appears as a distinctly separate area due to its elevation above and division from the dwelling, created by the existing high stone boundary walls and vegetation”, she wrote.
On that basis, the pod and the hard landscaping planned around it did not meet the criteria of the relevant planning regulations, she concluded.
Comments are closed.