COUNCIL bosses’ insistence on turning down planning permission for an extension which had already been built has caused untold stress, a homeowner has said.

Susan Muhsen’s application for retrospective permission for a single-storey extension to an annexe at her home in Allsprings Close, Great Harwood, was refused by Hyndburn Council planning committee members in December last year.

Mrs Muhsen said she spoke to the planning department at the council when her family were initially considering the extension as her son and his family were expecting a new baby.

She said they were told the extension would not require planning permission and advised a building control application for permitted development was all that was needed.

But once it was built, council enforcement officers visited and told Mrs Muhsen and her family they would need to apply for retrospective planning permission or the extension could have to be torn down.

A report before the planning committee recommended the application should be granted.

But committee members went against officers’ recommendations and refused permission.

Now Mrs Muhsen and her family are embroiled in a lengthy and stressful appeal process to the planning inspectorate in a bid to get the council’s decision overturned.

She said: “I contacted the planning department in May last year when we were thinking about the extension.

“I was told that it was covered by permitted development.

“We went out and got quotes and work started at the end of July/beginning of August.

“We were well into the work when someone from the council’s enforcement office came down. “I told him everything - that I had contacted the council, had plans drawn up and submitted to building control.

“My son and his family have lived in there for years, since we lost my mother.

“It was only because they were having another baby that we were thinking of making extra room for them.

“The council did not tell us to stop work or anything like that but six weeks later we got a letter,

“It was another eight weeks more before they came back and told us it did not fall under building control and at that point, we submitted a planning application.

“As far as we are concerned, the planning meeting was a farce.

“It has caused my family a lot of stress and still is doing."

“The amount of heartache and grief that has been caused by this is unbelievable.”

Planning committee members heard in December that the extension made the annexe overbearing and that it was essentially like another house.

A council spokesman said: “The council’s planning policies contain a presumption against the development of houses in gardens and given the proximity of the two-storey house to the existing house, it is not unreasonable for planning committee members to express concern about the impact of the development.

“The building has now been significantly increased in size and the justification for the annexe is no longer present owing to the passing away of the occupant for which it was originally intended.”