Home-owner fighting to stop demolition of ‘illegal’ annexe

A HOME-owner in a leafy suburb of Leeds is fighting to save a three-bedroom annexe built in his back garden without permission.

Wajid Hussain got approval in 2007 for a double garage and a granny flat, but the eventual construction bore little resemblance to the plans.

It was much larger and built on four levels, with a basement not mentioned in the original design.

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The annexe, in Old Park Road in the Roundhay conservation area, was the subject of a planning inquiry last year after the council rejected his retrospective planning application.

A planning inspector later backed the council but suggested a compromise could be found and it might only be partly demolished.

Angry residents are now calling for the annexe to be bulldozed totally.

A planning report to a council committee on Thursday, May 19, says a new planning application has been put in for alterations to the annexe.

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Planning chiefs are not satisfied with the new proposals, however, saying the building would still be too big and not in keeping with the area.

The report highlights an enforcement notice which required the building to be demolished by April 19 this year.

Twenty seven letters objecting to the revised plans have been sent to the council.

One objector said: “This has been ongoing for almost five years and needs to be brought to a close. It has cost the council and taxpayers a huge amount.”

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Mr Hussain’s representatives previously argued that his extended family amounted to 17 people and he needed the extra living space. It was claimed unsuccessfully that the council had discriminated against him on cultural and religious grounds.

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