Herefordshire woman ordered to demolish her home

Brigid Eakins, 66, who lives at Redwood Orchard in St Michaels near Tenbury Wells, has been ordered to knock down the building she has been living in since 2014.

She applied for permission to build the cabin in 2013 which replaced a mobile home on the site.

But she received a decision notice which said planning permission was not required.

After seven years battling with the county council, Brigid Eakins has lost planning approval. Brigid Eakins has battled to save her home for over seven years. The past seven years has been a very stressful time for Brigid Eakins. Brigid Eakins has battled with the county council for planning approval. Brigid Eakins at her home near Leysters.

However, the council has since said the property is unauthorised and is in breach of planning regulations.

They issued an enforcement notice for the development and an appeal was dismissed by the planning inspectorate and a subsequent judicial review was rejected.

“If the council has its way, by January 2022, I shall have been made homeless by Herefordshire Council,” Ms Eakins said.

“I will have had to have demolished my home otherwise the council will prosecute me for a criminal offence if I do not.

“Seven and a half years ago, I applied for planning permission to build my log cabin. I had permission, or what I reasonably thought was permission, granted by the council. And I duly built the log cabin structure in complete accordance with the plans.

“Unbeknown to me, until several years later, it transpires that this notice was unlawful. This is a fact.

“Furthermore, it turned out following a freedom of information request, that almost 100 such unlawful notices purporting to be planning decision notices, have been issued by Herefordshire Council over the period of a decade.

“Having spent my life savings, having been and still being on a raft of medication, I am less than a year away from being made homeless.”

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A council spokesperson said the structure far exceeds the scope of the original plans and prompted several complaints from local residents.

“The council has a responsibility to follow the adopted development plan and national planning policy aimed at promoting sustainable development in rural areas, and this has remained consistent throughout,” they said.

“The structure built in this location far exceeds the scope of the original plans, and has prompted several complaints from the local community.

“The council issued an enforcement notice for the unauthorised development. An appeal was dismissed by the Planning Inspectorate and a subsequent Judicial Review was also refused at permission stage. The site should have been cleared by August 2019, but due to the pandemic the council extended the time period for compliance until January 2022.

“We would remind all applicants that they build strictly to the approved plans and notify the council should they wish to make changes before undertaking development.”