Planning committee bends rules to let husband speak over balcony

A ROW over a balcony led to the planning committee breaking with convention at last week’s meeting.

During the meeting on Wednesday, December 13, resident Diane Hayes was invited to speak against proposals for a large extension and a balcony to the rear of a property in Wilderness Road, Earley.

Next-door-neighbour

Mrs Haines argued that her privacy would be breached if her neighbours were granted permission for the balcony.

She said: “I don’t feel comfortable knowing that someone could be sat there looking down into the back of my garden.”

But the committee were drawn to the fact that another neighbour had previously been granted permission for a balcony, therefore setting a precedent.

Mrs Haines was then allowed to come back, arguing that the other neighbours had not applied for permission to build a balcony, but instead were planning to install Juliet windows above an extension.

In a break from convention, the committee chair, Cllr Tim Holton, then allowed Mrs Haines’ husband to speak.

Mr Holton said: “We don’t usually allow this but as it is the last application of the last meeting of the year, I will allow you 30 seconds to speak.”

Mr Haines said: “The gentleman who lived in

[the house regarding the application] before, he was not well and his wife was not well, so I do not believe that he would have known that his next-doorneighbour was planning such a large extension, and if he did, he would have argued against it.”

Deliberating over the application, Cllr Rachelle Shepherd-DuBey said: “Someone sitting on a balcony and looking into a garden is no different from someone sitting inside and looking out of the window. My neighbours don’t do anything interesting in their garden that I’d want to see.”

The application was approved.