A couple has been ordered to build a large fence so that their neighbours don’t have to look at a luxury ‘super-shed’ they had built in their back garden.
Llinos Ndlovu and her husband, from Monmouth, Wales, constructed the building, which features wall-to-ceiling glass doors and a timber pergola covering a large 25ft decking, without planning permission in September 2023.
The shed was built on the foundations of a greenhouse as ‘office space’ around 30m from the couple’s home.
It is kitted out with electricity and an internet connection and has been furnished with two desk spaces, a sofa and flatscreen television.
After the shed was completed in the Welsh border town, which is rated as one of Britain’s best places to live, the couple applied for retrospective planning permission.
But the application sparked the ire of neighbours who complained over the building’s height.
Ms Ndlovu said the 6ft-deep workroom at the back was constructed for her and her husband’s homeworking needs.
She assured it ‘will never be used for housing or residential purposes and is for the sole purpose of office space for myself and my husband’.
Llinos Ndlovu and her husband, from Monmouth, Wales, constructed the building, which features wall-to-ceiling glass doors and a timber pergola covering a large 25ft decking, without planning permission in September 2023
It is kitted out with electricity and an internet connection and has been furnished with two desk spaces, a sofa and flatscreen television
The ‘super-shed’ is located around 30m from the couple’s house at the end of their sloping garden
Ms Ndlovu said she and her husband only realised planning permission was required when they were contacted by Monmouthshire County Council’s planning department
She added the building, situated at the elevated end of their sloping garden on Beech Road in Monmouth, has no facilities other than electricity and internet access and will not be used as a living space.
Ms Ndlovu said she and her husband only realised planning permission was required when they were contacted by Monmouthshire County Council’s planning department.
Six objections to the development came from from two properties – while two neighbours from one household supported the application.
Those against the design branded the shed as ‘too high and overbearing’.
The also argued its height enables the couple to look into their gardens, and suggested it could potentially be used for business purposes in future.
Monmouthshire council planning officer Helen Etherington noted that the sloping garden causes the shed to ‘appear taller’ when viewed from the house and creates visual prominence when seen from the neighbours’ garden due to the low boundary wall.
She also highlighted that since the structure was built over the greenhouse remains no existing building required removal that might have disturbed wildlife and the lawn beneath the decking stays accessible to wildlife.
Ms Etherington ruled that a two-metre high willow ‘privacy screen’ must be erected along the boundary with the neighbouring property and maintained as a planning condition.
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Family ordered to build huge fence so neighbours don’t have to look at ‘overbearing’ glass and timber 6ft ‘super-shed’ they built in their garden
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