A Teeside developer is to pay the ultimate price for flouting planning regulations after being told that a £400,000 house he built without permission in a picturesque North Yorkshire village must be pulled down.

Members of Hambleton District Council’s development control committee placed a demolition order on the five-bedroom house in Ingleby Arncliffe — a village near the western edge of the North York Moors National Park — 12 months ago. But they agreed to await the results of an appeal by the owner, Peter Howell, against refusal of planning permission for a revised scheme.

The appeal has now been dismissed by a planning inspector, who agreed with the council that the house “appears dominant and visually intrusive by virtue of its height, bulk and colour” and that “it is not in keeping with the general character of this part of Ingleby Arncliffe”. Geoff Ellis, chairman of the development control committee, described the decision as “a victory for common sense”.

“This is the worst case I’ve come across in the 20 years I’ve worked here,”he said. “The developer has been through three applications, three site visits and two appeals — and he has been refused on each occasion. I am sure this is the end of the road for him.” Mr Ellis said that the site had outline planning consent for a property but that a series of applications for retrospective permission had been refused by the authority and that it would now seek to enforce the demolition of the house within an agreed timescale.

“The house was built without planning permission and I have no sympathy for the developer, who flouted all planning guidelines and rules of the land in the belief that he could get round them,” he said. “He was told time and time

again to stop building but he kept on going and will now pay the price. This sends out a clear message to all developers — we will take action when properties are built without permission.”

Mr Howell can either demolish the house at his own expense, or the council will do it for him and send him the bill. Mr Howell, who started work on the house in 2004, could not be contacted for comment but told a local newspaper: “What I would like to do is something which I have never been able to achieve: have a calm conversation with the members of Hambleton District Council and find out exactly what sort of house they would want, or at this late stage whether any modifications could be made that would be acceptable,” he said. The site had outline consent for a house and he claimed the original scheme had the support of planning officers. “Without these two factors, I would never, ever have started building,” Mr Howell said.

Mr Ellis said that the case had cost the council and its taxpayers “a huge amount of money” but that it had been in the public interest to pursue it. He added: “It wouldn’t be appropriate for members of the council to enter into discussions with Mr Howell. Mr Howell needs to negotiate with planning officers.”

‘A LESSON FOR EVERYONE’

The advice of planning experts to homeowners is always to contact their council if they are unsure about planning permission.

Jane Watson, for the Royal Town Planning Institute, said: “It is crucial that people follow the correct procedures or they can get involved in a situation involving appeals and inspectors which can take years to resolve. Anybody can make a retrospective application to try to regu-larise what they’ve done. But they’d be much better off getting it right from the beginning.”

Ed Watson, of the Planning Advisory Service, said: “The danger of proceeding when you only have outline planning permission is that it is just an agreement in principle. If people start work before they’ve submitted a detailed application and received approval . . . they proceed entirely at their own risk.”

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