Cat-loving couple who built 9ft cat cage at Yorkshire home ordered to tear it down

Sue and Richard Howarth said they were giving up on their campaign to keep the structure.

Sue, 54, who lives with husband Richard in Marsden, near Huddersfield, said cats Chloe, Floyd, Freddie and Millie were now going out and exploring.

And referring to the year-long battle to keep the catio and the decision to throw in the towel she said: “I’m just pleased the whole thing is over.”

The couple hit the headlines last year when neighbours described their 9ft-high cat cage as “an eyesore”.

They were slapped with a formal enforcement notice by Kirklees Council, and despite redesigning the structure and attempting to seek a compromise, the council refused to back down on its stance that the catio was illegal.

Councillors voted against the couple’s new plan in March after planning officers said anything over and above what was already at the Howarths’ property, on Ottiwells Terrace, “would detract from that special character that it’s got”.

The Howarths’ catio was part of a larger project that included laying decking and installing patio doors to their terraced home in Ottiwells Terrace. The entire build cost £10,000.

Now Richard has pulled down the cage.

He said he was disappointed that planning officers refused to accept a lightweight, more modest version of the catio and that it was “almost invisible”.

He added: “I couldn’t believe it when they said no.”

His wife Sue admitted in retrospect that original cage was too large but said time and trouble could have been avoided if the council had intervened earlier.

“We didn’t know we were in a conservation area. If we had known we wouldn’t have done it," she said. “I can kind of see the council’s objection but what miffed me is they they could have told us to stop going as far as we did, but it is what it is.”

The couple have re-used the majority of the timber from the catio for storage. Some of the metal caging has been sold to a local farmer. Meanwhile the cats – which Sue calls her “fur babies” – are allowed out and the Howarths and their neighbours are on good terms.

“I have had a few heart-in-the-mouth moments with the cats when we see a car coming by,” Sue said. “For the first few times I was following them. The cage did its job. I couldn’t have let them out them they were kittens. We have all been stuck in a weird and wonderful situation and I’ve got to know our neighbours through that.

“We are getting on with them – even the ones that complained. We’re not nasty to them. Life’s too short to fall out.”

Ward councillor Donna Bellamy, who supported the Howarths through their stand-off with planning bosses, said she was “shocked” that the couple’s compromise design had not been accepted.

“It’s a shame that they didn’t get it through. I think it should have been approved,” she said.

An online petition in support of the Haworths’ cat containment area attracted 11,003 signatures. Their case was also backed by American “cat whisperer” Jackson Galaxy.

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