Garage must be torn down - and council will pay

Permission was granted in error and Arun District Council will use taxpayers' money to compensate John and Rita Kearns, of The Crescent, Rustington, for the removal of the garage, the costs they incurred in applying for it and having it built and may pay extra for the stress the mistake caused.

Arun's head of planning Howard Cheadle said: "The council will need to determine whether any additional payment should be made and the amount. It is possible that the advice of the local government ombudsman may be sought to assist with this issue."

The bill is expected to run into thousands of pounds.

Mr and Mrs Kearns, aged 70, and 69, have lived in their house for 18 years and thought a garage would be a wonderful addition to the property.

Arun granted planning permission for the building in July, 2004, after no objections were received from neighbours and work was completed by September of the same year.

But in April, 2005, seven months after the garage was built, Mr and Mrs Kearns were told by Mr Cheadle of the mistake and that a neighbour had complained since work had been completed.

The council's development control committee considered the case and in July, 2005, resolved that the garage should be removed.

That decision was then approved by Margaret Beckett, the secretary of state for the environment, food and rural affairs, making it a legal obligation for Mr and Mrs Kearns to remove the building.

Mr Kearns said: "It's been a real worry for me and my wife for the last year. We've not been able to get on with our lives.

"We only found out the council's decision on Tuesday, nearly a year after they first told us.

"The council have been so dogmatic about it all. It seems like they're picking on us. I've offered to paint it a different colour and put fencing up but they've just said no.

"My neighbours and I think it's a terrible waste of taxpayers' money and we've got signatures from 17 homes on a petition, saying the garage should stay.

"I can't do the work myself as I suffer from rheumatoid arthritis, so somebody will have to be hired in and the council will have to pay them."

Mr Cheadle told the Gazette that the mistake happened as a result of "a unique combination of factors that involved new staff in development control and a training exercise going on elsewhere on the computer system".

He added: "The immediate response has been an instruction that decision notices cannot be sent out without a paper copy being manually checked and initialled by a senior planning officer.

"Changes are also being made to the software to prevent an incorrect decision being issued in the future."

Dereck Wade, a planning consultant hired by the Kearns, described the measures imposed by Arun as "Draconian" and said: "This is the kind of thing that gives planning a bad name."