A MAN granted planning permission to build a house 22 years ago has been given 18 months to complete the work or face seeing it pulled down.

Graham Bennett, of Castle View, Barnoldswick, was given an extra six months by a planning inspector on top of the 12-month time limit imposed by Pendle Council to complete the large detached home in a conservation area.

It means he has until next March to finish building work.

Mr Bennett was granted outline permission in November 1977, when James Callaghan was Labour Prime Minister and the Queen celebrated her Silver Jubilee, and full details of the two-storey home were agreed two years later. Building work on the house and garage started but two decades later the house remains an unfinished shell with boarded up windows and doors with no frames, no gutters or drainpipes and floorboards in only two rooms.

In November 1998, after complaints from fed-up neighbours, the council imposed a completion notice on Mr Bennett, ordering him to finish the work inside 12 months or face legal action to pull down the house.

Mr Bennett appealed against the notice and a planning inquiry was held in August at Barnoldswick Civic Hall. Mr Bennett told the inquiry personal matters which he did not want to disclose had delayed the work.

The inspector supported the council's decision to issue a completion notice but allowed Mr Bennett extra time to finish his house. The inspector said: "I acknowledge the delay in recent years has at least in part been due to Mr Bennett's worry over personal matters of far greater concern. "Even so, the period of inactivity has been prolonged and little progress has been made since 1992. Considering this I think it would be unduly optimistic to imagine the commitment to finishing the house which he expressed at the inquiry would be turned into prompt action within a reasonable period of time if the completion notice were not confirmed."

The inspector's report said Mr Bennett, who intends to complete the house as quickly as possible, had estimated it would cost £53,000 to finish the work during a meeting with council officers. But during the inquiry Mr Bennett said he could not recollect stating the figure and said the work would cost between £10,000 and £12,000 excluding connections to utility services.

A spokesman for the neighbours said: "We're pleased the completion notice has been upheld but not happy at the decision to allow Mr Bennett 18 months. We thought after 22 years he'd had far too long already. We hope Pendle Council will monitor the situation on a regular basis."

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