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Council call a halt to house building work

14/ 5/2008

A BUILDER was red-carded after jumping the gun on planning permission for new houses.

Resident Matthew Fennard became suspicious when he found out that a neighbour who owned part of the site knew nothing about the development on Queen Street in Glossop town centre. It is an area with terraced properties either side of the street.

Matthew, 37, who lives opposite the site, said: "The houses would have bore no resemblance to the others on the street as they would have been set back from the street with porches. There’d also be more cars on the street which would have led to double parking. It’s hard enough to get in and out of Glossop with all the traffic as it is."

Matthew, a clerk at Howard Bernstein’s solicitors in the town centre, added: "It seems every green bit of space in Glossop is being built on for more houses."

He added that plans were afoot to try and obtain village green status for the site, to protect it from developers in future.

High Peak Council planning officers visited the site and advised the builders that they had no permission to be there.

After refusing requests to cease work, the builders were served with a temporary stop notice which expires today (Thursday). Two diggers and concrete slabs occupied the fenced-off site as The Advertiser went to press.

A spokesman for Planmart Limited, who were cited as agent for the builder, declined to comment beyond saying ‘it was an unfortunate set of circumstances’.

Councillor Tony Kemp, High Peak Council’s executive member for regeneration, said: "The council acted promptly to stop this building work that was taking place without consent. Where necessary we shall not hesitate in taking formal action to tackle unauthorised development."