A council has told a homeowner he will likely have to tear down the chunk of Berlin Wall in his garden – because it is “oppressive”. Steven Thorpe, 65, bought a section of the famous wall for an undisclosed sum from a farmer in Germany and installed at his home in earlier this year.<\/p>\n
But neighbours annoyed they could see the top over their fence complained to Southwark Council \u2013 who have now said the “only option available” is “a planning enforcement notice”.<\/p>\n
A letter written by a planning case officer says he considers the installation of the wall to be \u201cunacceptable\u201d and that it results in \u201cplanning harm\u201d. It adds that the \u201c3.6-metre\u201d tall section of wall, which weighs 2.75 tonnes, \u201csignificantly exceeds the two-metre height limit for gates, fences, walls or other means of enclosure\u201d under planning regulations.<\/p>\n
It goes on to say that the planning enforcement notice “is likely to require the removal of the works”.<\/p>\n
If Mr Thorpe does not comply he could face a fine of up to \u00a320,000.<\/p>\n
Mr Thorpe, a property developer, says he\u2019s going to appeal the case officer\u2019s decision and disputes the measurements quoted.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cI totally disagree with that \u2013 they\u2019ve described a large reinforced concrete structure rather than a heritage artefact or sculpture. I think that framing\u2019s important, it underpins their conclusion simply as an unauthorised structure, when I consider it to be a historical artefact.”<\/p>\n
The letter continues to say that “no planning application has been submitted or approved”.<\/p>\n
It adds: \u201cThe development causes material harm to the amenity of the neighbouring property by reason of its overbearing scale, oppressive sense of enclosure and stark industrial appearance that is made worse here due to the massive scale and unnecessary siting of the wall so close to the garden boundary.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Thorpe added: \u201cThey\u2019ve relied on the fact it\u2019s 3.6-metres high, it\u2019s not \u2013 its installed height is 3.1 metres. It\u2019s \u2018within 60cm of the boundary\u2019 \u2013 well it\u2019s not, it\u2019s 97cm from the boundary. \u2018It exceeds the two-metre height for fences and walls\u2019, well it\u2019s not a wall, it\u2019s an artefact. It\u2019s not enclosing any land, it\u2019s a free-standing, historic artefact.” There\u2019s no explanation whatsoever of the alleged planning harm.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy neighbour can barely see the top of it now I\u2019ve got Red Robin [a shrub] planted along the fence. They simply assert it causes planning harm without any backup. One would have thought they\u2019d come to visit the site before sending this letter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Towards the conclusion of the letter, the planning officer says an application may be accepted if it were moved elsewhere in the garden \u201ccombined with evidence of neighbour consultation.\u201d<\/p>\n
But it continues: “However, absent any alternative proposals the only option available to the local planning authority is to issue a planning enforcement notice. A planning enforcement notice is subject to a right of appeal, including the right to request planning permission. However, you are also advised that failure to comply with the terms of planning enforcement notice is a criminal offence, punishable by a fine of up to \u00a320,000.”<\/p>\n
Mr Thorpe said: \u201cIf I really have to move it, I\u2019ll move it, but I don\u2019t consider it\u2019s doing any harm to my neighbour. They can barely see it now the screening is there with the Red Robin. I\u2019m taking some advice from friends of mine in planning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Southwark Council said previously: \u201cWe have received a planning complaint about a section of wall installed in Dulwich. We will investigate the complaint and take any appropriate action in line with the national planning process.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Berlin Wall was a 155-kilometre (96-mile) barrier built by East Germany in August 1961 to prevent its citizens from fleeing to the West. It stood until November 1989 when a new travel law was mistakenly announced, which saw crowds rush to the border. The wall was opened under the onslaught of so many people and, ultimately, torn down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A council has told a homeowner he will likely have to tear down the chunk of Berlin Wall…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[18,1582,41159,41157,25892,41158,40637,41156],"class_list":["post-50144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-berlin","tag-berlin","tag-berlin-wall","tag-case-officer","tag-enforcement-notice","tag-planning-application","tag-planning-enforcement-notice","tag-southwark-council","tag-steven-thorpe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}