Tear prized pergola down, dean ordered
TheY had spent years lovingly transforming a derelict barn into a home in which they could enjoy their retirement.
So Georgina Key and her brother the Very rev Peter Berry – former Dean of Birmingham Cathedral – thought there would be no harm in adding a roman pergola as a stylish finishing touch.
They used iron pillars reclaimed from a disused railway station and oak beams to ensure the structure, for their hanging baskets, was in keeping.
But a neighbour complained and they have now been ordered to tear down the pergola because they had not sought planning permission.
Council officers deemed it ‘too domestic’ and ‘ incongruous’ with the rural setting – the barn is on a farm in the village of high Offley, Staffordshire.
Mrs Key, 71, and Mr Berry, 80, are considering an appeal but fear challenging the decision by Stafford Borough Council could cost them up to £1,000.
Mrs Key, a retired auctioneer, said: ‘It’s barmy. The property is not listed. The pillars are completely free- standing, which should mean they are exempt from planning rules.
‘This pergola is classed as too domestic but we were given planning permission to live in the barn. Other barns have got swings and trampolines, but they are classed as OK.’
Mr Berry, Mrs Key and her husband Wesley bought the barn for £225,000 ten years ago. Mr Key died from cancer three years ago.
‘When my husband passed away and Peter developed Alzheimer’s we moved into the barn together,’ Mrs Key said. They erected the 9ft pergola last year using pillars dating from the 1820s their grandparents had salvaged from Cotes heath station for use in a barn. Mrs Key has pledged to continue the battle to keep the pergola.
‘I’m fighting it not just for me, but for other people living in barns,’ she said. ‘The pillars were, at one stage, part of a working farm before the First World War so they are most definitely in keeping with their surroundings.’
In a letter to Mrs Key, the council said the pergola ‘would form incongruous and overtly domesticating features’ next to the ‘sensitively converted’ barn, adding: ‘The proposal... fundamentally conflicts with the principles for re-use of rural buildings.’
The council’s Will Conaghan added: ‘The structure was built without permission and doesn’t meet planning guidelines. The owner has a right to appeal.’