Planning row victory for battling Deborah

A determined mother-of-two who took on planning officers and won over a mansion owner's illegal development next door today told of her relief.

Deborah Vine was shaking with nerves as she addressed the South Staffordshire district council's regulatory committee last night over the project by neighbour Tony Wright.

He built a floodlit riding centre and stables for 14 horses next to her home in Levedale Road, Penkridge, and changed a track yards from the property into a "road" without permission.

Mrs Vine, aged 40, said the development threatened to destroy her rural idyll and councillors agreed.

She told the committee: "I hope you will do the right thing and reject this application for retrospective planning permission.

"When we moved in 14 years ago our house stood in open countryside and a commercial-type riding school is something we would never have imagined. We wanted peace and quiet."

Minutes later Mrs Vine got the first indication the plea had not fallen on deaf ears when Penkridge councillor Christine Raven said: "This is a golden opportunity to give a clear message to individuals who believe that planning regulations do not apply to them that this council does not, and never will, support maverick initiatives on this scale."

Mr Wright lives in a large house on one side of Mrs Vine's property.

And she bought Brickle Cottage with several acres of land - where the controversial development is now built - on the other side of her in 2003.

A Government inspector had already rejected retrospective permission.

But council planning officers recommended approval in a revised plan that would have included a two-metre high sound barrier.

Mrs Vine said: "This may sit comfortably with the officers of the council who are recommending acceptance but it does not with me. I have never been consulted about anything."

Penkridge councillor Mrs Isobel Ford, who successfully moved the rejection of their suggestion, said: "When you go to live in the country you do not expect to be surrounded by an acoustic fence."

Essington councillor David Clifft added: "We have an applicant with total disregard for planning laws."

The committee unanimously rejected the recommendation of their officers and threw out the latest planning application from Mr Wright.

Mrs Vine said today: "I am so grateful to the councillors.

"They have stopped my dream of country living being turned into a nightmare."

Mr Wright declined to comment.

Councillor Ford told the Express & Star today: "By right the whole thing should now be knocked down but enforcement officers try to reach a compromise in this sort of situation. I believe that a compromise can still be reached if both sides are willing to co-operate, but that is not going to happen if Mr Wright continues to think that he can have it all his own way.

"The other people have got to be considered too.

"So far he appears to have ignored all the normal procedures."