A MAN has been told to turn his home back into a stable after he lost an appeal against Hyndburn Council.

Terrence Ashworth, who had converted a stable at Town Bent Allotments, in Oswaldtwistle, into a bungalow-style home with a fully-furnished kitchen and garden area, has been given six months to find somewhere new to live.

Mr Ashworth had appealed against a notice from the council issued in August last year, which said he had breached the original planning permission he had obtained in 2008 to build stables.

Although he was allowed to construct the stables, permission had not been granted for them to be lived in.

Hyndburn Council gave Mr Ashworth 28 days to remove the chimney and alarm system from the property, take down wooden decking that had been constructed, and turn it back into a stable.

Mr Ashworth appealed against the council’s notice, claiming that because the work had been carried out on the property more than four years before the notice date, no action could be taken.

The appeal was considered by Jean Russell, from the planning inspectorate, who decided that because no evidence of the date the original work had been done had been provided, the appeal could not stand.

She also concluded that maintaining the property, which is on Green Belt land, as a home was inappropriate for the area.

In a planning inspectorate report, she said: “Even if the building does incorporate something of the former stable, I find that major reconstruction took place.

“The dwelling is only in existence and occupied because of the works such as rebuilding of walls.

“The domestic use of land associated with the dwelling causes a loss of openness in the Green Belt and conflicts with the purposes of incl-uding land in Green Belts.”

Mr Ashworth has been given six months to complete the alterations and move out of the building.