What about our privacy?
Couple erect screens with photos of their neighbours staring over their garden
THEIR garden offers spectacular views over a bay in Cornwall to the historic tidal island of St Michael’s Mount.
But when neighbours were given permission to build balconies so they too could enjoy the sight, Courtney and Fiona Lytton were furious.
The ‘deeply private’ couple say that with people looking over their garden, they feel like they are in a ‘goldfish bowl’.
So, in protest, they took photos of the neighbours looking out of their windows and enlarged them into 10ft signs with the words ‘privacy banner’. They put the banners on poles in the middle of the garden, obstructing the view across Mount’s Bay to island and its medieval castle.
The couple said yesterday they took such drastic action because they felt let down by planners who let their neighbours build balconies.
Mrs Lytton, 60, a professional gardener, and her 65-year-old husband say they will keep the banners in the garden of their £440,000 detached former farmhouse in Tregarthen, near Penzance, ‘until something is done to fix the situation’. Mrs Lytton said: ‘It’s now impossible to enjoy the garden because it’s like being in a goldfish bowl.
‘There’s nowhere in our garden to have a cup of coffee without being watched. We created privacy banners so we would have some part of our garden where we wouldn’t be seen. We used pictures of our neighbours looking out their windows at us for two reasons.
‘First, it gives us an area where we can be without them looking at us. Secondly, I wanted to show them what it was like to have them looking at us.’
The couple launched their protest after the owners of two neighbouring properties – a converted barn and a cottage – were allowed to add balconies.
Mrs Lytton said: ‘The property on the left was a converted barn. It has five balconies and five floor-to-ceiling windows – each looks into our garden.
‘On the right, it was a lowimpact bungalow and they had a full-length extension on top. They have two even bigger windows that overlook our garden.’
The former bungalow, worth around £430,000, was converted by GP Dr Rupert Morrall and his physiotherapist wife Zelah, according to planning records.
The Lyttons first objected in 2015, saying their privacy would be ‘reduced by 90 per cent’, but Cornwall county council granted permission for the work. Yesterday Dr Morrall, 48, confirmed that he had been pictured on a ‘privacy banner’ but declined to comment further.
Cornwall county council said: ‘Residents are always given the opportunity to comment on planning applications on neighbouring properties.
‘All comments are assessed as part of the planning process and are weighed against national and local planning policy and guidance.’
It added the Lyttons could complain to the Local Government Ombudsman if they were not satisfied with its response.