Keith Hare owns the paddock alongside his home The Heddle in Gifford and has lived there since the beginning of 2015, but an application to turn it into a domestic garden has been refused by East Lothian Council planners, who said that there was no proof it had been used that way.
Photographs of Mr Hare cutting the grass of the paddock were provided to officers, along with sworn statements saying it had been looked afterwards as if it were a garden, with “children, nieces, nephews and grandchildren” playing in it over the years.
And it was acknowledged by planners that permission to turn part of the paddock into garden space with a summerhouse in the past had been granted.
However, officers said that the application for a certificate of lawfulness declaring the whole paddock part of the house garden could not be supported, saying that photographs of it being cared for were not dated and the sworn statement did not provide the evidence needed to show it had been in constant use for over a decade.
They said: “The information submitted with this application does not demonstrate that the grass paddock field has been in continuous use as domestic garden ground serving the house named ‘The Heddle’ for a period of 10 years or more.
“No other supporting factual documentation has been submitted to demonstrate, on the balance of probability, that the grass paddock field has been in continuous use as domestic garden ground serving the house named ‘The Heddle’ for a period of 10 years or more in order for it to be considered lawful.
“Accordingly, this application should therefore be refused, and a certificate of
lawfulness should not be issued.”
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