MILLIONAIRE IN CCTV ROW
ALANDOWNER who installed CCTV without planning permission during a row over access with his neighbours might have to take the cameras down. Millionaire Ian Jones, who owns a golf club, fell out with his neighbours when he told a group of residents they had to pay him up to £5,000 to access the backs of their own homes with their cars.
Mr Jones bought the track behind a row of homes last April.
He said he sent letters to the 14 households asking them for £350 each so he could widen the track and trim trees and hedges, saying in return they could continue to use it.
But he says no-one responded and so he put a gate at the bottom of the track, which runs up to his house.
The residents say they can no longer park their cars at the backs of their houses.
He then installed the CCTV cameras after the padlocks on the gate were vandalised with superglue four times.
But now, an application to keep the cameras in place behind the Mount Pleasant cottages in Penrhynside, near Llandudno, has been rejected, the Daily Post reports.
In August, Mr Jones applied for retrospective planning permission to retain the mast with the CCTV cameras, but the application was refused by Conwy council on October 24.
The council said: “The mast and associated cameras form an obtrusive introduction to an open rural site which is located with a green edge, the Great Orme and Creuddyn Peninsula Special Landscape Area and the Bryn Pydew Historic Landscape.
“The mast and associated cameras would result in an unacceptable adverse impact on residential amenity.”
Llandudno Town Council recommended refusal on the grounds of privacy, and six letters of objection were received by Conwy’s planning department. Neighbours protested on the grounds of lack of privacy and said the mast was an intrusion and not in keeping with the area.
One neighbour asked: “Why so many cameras needed to monitor a gate?”
Another wrote: “There appears to be a cluster of five or six cameras and two floodlights. Several of the cameras are directed at the rear of the terrace properties and one in particular seems to be directed at the rear of our property.
“One floodlight illuminates the rear of our property by night. This intrusion of privacy is unacceptable to us.”
Mr Jones is able to appeal Conwy’s planning decision.
It’s understood a number of neighbours have paid an undisclosed sum of money so that they can park at the back of their properties. They have received keys to the gate.
Mr Jones did not respond to requests for a comment.