Putting the record straight

Can I correct some errors in your otherwise excellent article on the kitchen at Wildwood’s Southgate restaurant?

I am not a retired solicitor but a retired building services engineer and was first approached by the restaurant’s neighbours in 2015 to advise on the kitchen

ventilation system installed on the party wall of their home.

The kitchen was installed in breach of a planning condition, which prevented what was a store/covered yard being used for any other purpose in perpetuity, to preserve residential amenity.

Wildwood’s owners,

Tasty PLC, have made no less than three planning applications since 2015 to have the restrictive condition set aside and the kitchen retrospectively approved. All have been refused.

Although a Breach of Condition Notice was issued by the council in October 2016 and withdrawn six weeks later, a Breach of Condition Enforcement Notice was issued much more recently in September, 2018.

Unlike the BCN, the BCEN could be and was appealed. The Planning Inspectorate refused the appeal but gave Tasty PLC six months to remove the kitchen. Just

before the six months was due to expire in February, the restaurant’s advisers issued and the council accepted the most recent, third planning application. This was refused on 2 September 2020.

We are waiting to hear what the next move will be in this long running Groundhog Day saga.

DERRICK POPE Holt Place Birdham