OAP couple ordered to tear out driveway after forking out thousands of pounds

Daily Record

a day ago

A devoted husband who spent thousands building a driveway to help his disabled wife has been ordered to tear it out after council chiefs refused him planning permission.
A gran's disabled husband has been ordered to rip up the £5,000 driveway he built to help her after council chiefs refused him planning permission.
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Stephen Price, 65, from Hengoed, says he'll fight Caerphilly Council's decision to deny him retrospective approval after he transformed his front garden into a parking space, reports Wales Online.
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The plumber and builder, who lives on Heol Uchaf, started the work around ten weeks ago to make life easier for wife Kim, 67, who suffers from a string of debilitating illnesses including heart failure, arthritis and fibromyalgia.
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But just as the project was nearing completion, officials told him to stop and councillors last week voted against his application.
The move means Mr Price could now be left with a £13,000 bill to rip the drive out.
He said: "I told the council I wanted a drive and they said I'd need a dropped kerb so I paid them what would be about £500 in today's money to put one in," he said.
"I can't understand how the highways department didn't speak to the planning department at the time. Nothing was said about any restrictions on using it."
When asked why it had taken so long to start work on the drive, Mr Price admitted: "We weren't really desperate for a drive then.
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"It was more of a want at that point but now we are desperate with my wife's health and the parking issue getting worse. We saved up to do it."
But planners shot the idea down, warning the new drive would strip away the raised garden and leave the property out of step with the "distinctive character of the area". They also claimed it could spark a wave of similar applications.
Mr Price, who bought his semi from the council back in 1990, admitted not many houses on his street have drives but argued plenty of others nearby do.
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"It's like the council is prejudicing against our street saying we can't have driveways when about 20 other houses on the estate have them," said Mr Price, who pointed out that none of his neighbours had objected to his application.
Mr Price plans to appeal the decision on the basis that "there is not one single look to the neighbourhood" and that the council is "discriminating against our street".
He had told councillors on the planning committee that he had already spent more than £5,000 hiring a digger and excavating part of his property, adding: 'To put it all back – we haven't got the money to do it anyway.'
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A planning officer recommended refusal partly because approval would make it difficult "to resist other similar developments with cumulative adverse effects on the distinctive character of the area".
Speaking in support of the application Hengoed ward councillor Donna Cushing said Mr Price had been "unaware planning permission would be required" and that parking on another street made it hard for Mrs Price to get home.
Committee member councillor Nigel Dix urged his colleagues to 'show a bit of compassion' and overrule the officer's recommendation. 'I think in this case we should allow the residents to have their parking bay,' he said.
Councillor Shane Williams said he 'sympathised' with the applicant's case but 'if every homeowner decided to do this that would totally undermine' the street.
Councillor Mansell Powell called the case 'a bit untidy' with Mr Price 'caught in the middle' of planning rules. He claimed the presence of a dropped kerb outside the property suggested one could 'drive in' to it.
The committee voted to refuse the application by eight votes to four with two abstentions. The chairman, councillor Roy Saralis, said he had a 'tremendous amount of sympathy' for Mr Price and told him he had the right to appeal the decision.
'Obviously it's a sad situation but planning is planning,' the chairman added.