Couple's £900k home may be demolished after council planning row

Jun 25 2009 by Gemma Jaleel, Ormskirk Advertiser

Please don’t knock down our £900k home

AN AUGHTON couple could have their £900,000 dream house demolished after the council said they went against the planning regulations.

Colin and Collette Walker of Bold Lane, lost an appeal against an enforcement notice to have their four-bedroomed house on Winifred Lane knocked down.

A planning inspector said that the dimensions of the property are larger than the approved scheme.

But Mr Walker, 50, told the Advertiser that it is the council who is at fault because they did not ask for dimensions for the house at any stage from planning to the building being complete.

“When the plans have been printed out the printer has reduced them by 4% and these plans have been passed.

“The trouble is that the plans were drawn up with AutoCAD and it’s dangerous to use a scale rulerbecause printers often have these discrepancies with computer-aided design.

“This is why the plans clearly state that all the dimensions should be checked or measured on site and not scaled from the drawing.”

“However, plans containing full dimensions were subsequently submitted to West Lancs Building Control.”

Colin, originally from Crosby, has been married for 22 years and the couple planned to move into the house with his two children aged 21 and 16.

“We weren’t aware that there was a problem. We were building the plans that we believed the council had passed.