Council wins eight-year fight to force Gypsy couple to demolish double-wide mobile home they got away with building without planning permission - because it turned out 18inches too wide - Norfolk

From the Daily Mail

A Gypsy couple have been ordered to demolish the £250,000 home they have lived in for eight years, because it is 18 inches too wide.

Rodney Wilson and partner Pat Wenn moved onto the land in Walsoken, Norfolk in 2006 but ignored the local planning laws which outlines a ban to build on the site.

In 2011 - after an appeal - they were eventually granted permission to have two mobile homes which they knocked into a single property, complete with conservatory.

But they found themselves in another battle with West Norfolk Borough Council when it emerged their double park home - which has a front garden and an ornamental pond - was too big and didn't adhere to the planning proposal.

Mr Wilson, 70, said the battle has already cost him £30,000 in planning fees and it would cost him another £38,000 to reduce the size of the property in which he and his partner were planning to retire in.

It comes after planners said the two mobile units joined together were 24ft wide instead of the maximum 22ft 3ins permitted under rules governing caravan sites.

Mr Wilson, and his partner, 75, were refused permission to keep the existing home on the site as the council voted for 'direct action' to remove it in 2012.

The couple appealed but a High Court judge has now lifted an injunction stopping the council from getting rid of the property under the original enforcement notice of 2006.

A report to a recent planning committee meeting said: 'Implementation and execution of direct action to comply with part of the enforcement notice, the removal of the unauthorised park home, will now be carried out to remedy the ongoing breach of planning control.'

Mr Wilson said: 'All I want to do is live here and retire here. That's all I'm asking.

'It's cost me £30,000 in solicitor's fees so far and I'm not finished yet.'

He has estimated it would cost him £38,000 to reduce the width of the property.

In 2006, the council refused to accept that the mobile unit was a 'caravan' because it did not pass the necessary mobility tests.

Council chiefs also did no believe that Mr Wilson was a Gypsy at he beginning of the planning process - so the planning decision was not assessed in accordance with Gypsy sites.

However, after hearing additional information about his formerly 'nomadic life' - which he lived until he decided to settle down and cease travelling - they accepted his status and gave permission for him to build a 'mobile home for persons of Gypsy status'.