Councillors have backed a call for a garden fence to be torn down despite agreeing it was a ‘tasteful’ addition to a housing scheme.
Gillian Anderson moved the fence at the side of her house on a new build estate in Haddington, around a metre forward to enclose a strip of grass belonging to the property, which she argued was ‘unusable’.
She was later refused planning permission for the six foot high new wooden boundary after East Lothian Council planning officers said it breached their open front garden policy.
And a meeting of the council’s Local Review Body today rejected an appeal over the decision by three votes to one.
Councillors agreed the fence was “tasteful” but it was too far forward and stood out when they looked down the street.
Only review body member Councillor Donna Collins, backed the appeal telling the meeting: “I have sympathy with the applicant. She asked the developer and factor if the fence was okay and was told it would be, she did not realise it would need planning permission.”
In her appeal to the review body, Ms Anderson said she had simply enclosed an unusable strip of her garden within the fence improving her privacy and safety.
She said: “This fence encloses a small private garden accessed directly from patio doors at the side of the house, forming a vital part of our private living space.
“The area was previously a narrow, unusable strop between an existing boundary wall and an earlier section of fence. Extending the fence by approx one metre has made the garden more practical, safer and more private for daily family use.”
However, planners said the new fence boundary set a ‘harmful precedent’ in the estate where low stone walls are used as front garden boundaries.
And they said the new position of the fence and a gate, which was created at the side. risked sparking similar actions from other residents.
They said: “The fences and gate would set a harmful precedent for allowing the addition of similar forms of fencing to be erected on the front roadside boundaries of the front gardens of other residential properties within the locality.
“Such change would be individually and cumulatively out of keeping with the character and appearance of the residential properties in the development, to the greater detriment of the streetscape.”
Review body chairperson Councillor Andy Forrest agreed the fence looked good but said it was a breach of policy.
He said: “It is tastefully done but while there are other high fences on the estate they are all behind the line of the house.”
Review body members Councillors Forrest, Keith McLeod and Shona McIntosh voted to refuse the appeal while Councillor Collins voted for it.
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