A homeowner who refused to tear down a 40ft elevated cabin which angry neighbours complain looks like a prison camp watchtower has submitted another planning application to add a balcony.
The large structure was built without planning permission in the garden of a new-build Airbnb in the small Welsh seaside resort of Rhos on Sea.
After this, the homeowner found himself at loggerheads with the local council who decided not to grant retrospective planning permission and then a planning inspector ruled it must be torn down after rejecting an appeal.
However, it remains in the garden.
Pictures taken from a disgruntled neighbour’s garden show the the scaffolding-covered cabin on top of a set of layered heightened boundary walls.
Neighbours claimed that the overbearing structure made them feel like ‘zoo animals’ and that guests at the holiday home ‘repeatedly party, week after week, on the balcony without any curfew or controls’.
Nick Whitmore, one of the neighbours, said: ‘We are delighted the ghastly prison watchtower appeal has failed and was dismissed by the planning inspector. This has been a very stressful and difficult time for my family, neighbours and me.’
He added that it is ‘absolutely breathtaking’ that another planning application has now been made.
The large structure was built without planning permission in the garden of a new-build Airbnb in the small Welsh seaside resort of Rhos on Sea
Pictures taken from a disgruntled neighbour’s garden show the the scaffolding-covered cabin on top of a set of layered heightened boundary walls. Neighbours claimed that the overbearing structure made them feel like ‘zoo animals’
‘It appears the merry-go-round continues with no respite or respect shown for neighbours,’ he told the Daily Telegraph.
‘We hope when this latest application goes before the planning committee our county councillors will see through this latest application – which now seeks to add a balcony to the watchtower. Should that application also be refused, we very much look forward to the prison watchtower finally being torn down in February.’
The battle over the structure has been raging since January 2024 when the cabin was erected suddenly.
Speaking to the Daily Mail in March this year, Mr Whitmore said: ‘I came home from work in January 2024 and that thing had been erected without the cladding,’ he said.
‘It looks into my daughter’s bedroom.
‘It’s an Airbnb and they have continued rotation of unchecked guests.
‘It’s absolutely violating, possibly the worst juxtaposition of an Airbnb you can imagine, in the middle of seven houses.’
In the council’s ruling on the plans inspectors stated that there had been ‘strong objections submitted, due to the impact of the cabin on the privacy and amenity of neighbouring properties, particularly in relation to the raised platform and the dominant nature of the structure.’
