Advantage Sue: Barker wins her fight to raise the roof
SUE BARKER, the television presenter and former tennis star, has won a battle to raise the roof of the Cotswold home she shares with her husband because he repeatedly bangs his head on low ceilings.
The couple applied for permission to increase the height of their Gloucestershire home by 1.5 metres (4ft 11in), according to planning documents.
Lance Tankard said he had once “knocked himself clean out” and had twice cut his head on “pinch points” where the valleys of the roof meet to the rear of the property.
“I can only place a small chest of drawers into these areas and then limbo up towards them if I want to open a drawer,” he wrote in a letter to Tewkesbury council. In a statement submitted to the council, the couple’s architect also noted: “The applicant is tall and after many years his head still has an affinity for the low valley blades of the roof.” Nearby residents objected to the alterations, with one saying it would “disproportionately impact and overshadow the roofline of the neighbouring houses”.
A further objection stated that “any increase in the height of the roof of the application dwelling would have a disproportionate and overbearing effect upon neighbouring dwellings and the roof lines of the village street”.
The parish council also objected to the application. However, in a letter to the planning committee, Mr Tankard said that their home “will still be significantly lower in height than the surrounding homes if planning were approved”.
He also revealed the couple had considered knocking down the original building and constructing a new home, saying he was sure a two-storey property would have been granted planning permission.
The council was also asked to grant retrospective permission for an extension to the property. Permission was given the green light in both cases.