Advice to approve 'garage' stirs council row
4 July 2006 - Western Mail
THE furious row over a garage which cost a council chief executive his £120,000-a-year job will flare again today.
And despite the furore which surrounded 47-year-old Tim Thorogood's "amendments" to the garage at the back of his luxury Gower home, planning officers on Swansea Council say the building should remain as it is.
The row began last year when Swansea Council received complaints that a toilet, shower, velux windows and other improvements had been made to the building at Mr Thorogood's home, Broad Park, overlooking picturesque Rhossili Bay.
But the building only had permission for use as a garage and tack room.
The complaints led to the head of the council's 12,000 workforce being escorted from his County Hall office just before Christmas.
And in January he negotiated an exit settlement - thought to be worth £60,000 - with the council which gave him a good reference.
He now works for the Local Government Information Unit in London and a new Swansea Council Chief executive has been appointed on a salary of £150,000 a year. He is Gloucester City Council's Paul Smith.
But despite Mr Thorogood's departure, it still meant the authority had to deal with the thorny issue of the garage.
The council's Area 2 Development Control Committee will discuss its future in a meeting today.
Mr Thorogood and his wife Alison, a complaints officer with Neath Port Talbot Council, have applied to the committee for retention of the garage incorporating the toilet, shower room, residential accommodation in the roof void and additional windows.
Planning officers have recommend approval on the grounds that while "modifications were not in accordance with approved plans" in an overall sense they would not have an unacceptable adverse effect on neighbours' amenities.
In a report to be considered by the committee today however the Gower Society says, "The council must be as strict as possible in making its decision.
"It is extremely important that no precedent is set by giving retrospective approval that might encourage others to circumvent the planning process and acceptable design in the Gower Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
"When we wrote to the council in September 2005 we asked that a condition be imposed on this building such that the garage may be used only as a garage and no use should be made for residential purposes.
"Such a condition has already been imposed by this council, on other large and potentially inhabitable garages in the AONB area."
The Swansea Civic Society says in the report, "We are very concerned about the application. What was supposed to be a garage and tack room has become a residential unit and to permit this would reflect very badly on the planning department.
"The original plans must be adhered to because to deviate would show a weakened planning department and send out entirely the wrong signal."
In a letter of objection, a Rhossili resident said, "My concern is that other properties have been forced by the planning authority to demolish buildings as they are slightly out of compliance.
"If retrospective planning is given it will make a mockery of these previous decisions and set a precedent."
Planning officers say in the report however that if the garage was to be used for commercial purposes such as a holiday let further planning permission would be required.
THE furious row over a garage which cost a council chief executive his £120,000-a-year job will flare again today.
And despite the furore which surrounded 47-year-old Tim Thorogood's "amendments" to the garage at the back of his luxury Gower home, planning officers on Swansea Council say the building should remain as it is.
The row began last year when Swansea Council received complaints that a toilet, shower, velux windows and other improvements had been made to the building at Mr Thorogood's home, Broad Park, overlooking picturesque Rhossili Bay.
But the building only had permission for use as a garage and tack room.
The complaints led to the head of the council's 12,000 workforce being escorted from his County Hall office just before Christmas.
And in January he negotiated an exit settlement - thought to be worth £60,000 - with the council which gave him a good reference.
He now works for the Local Government Information Unit in London and a new Swansea Council Chief executive has been appointed on a salary of £150,000 a year. He is Gloucester City Council's Paul Smith.
But despite Mr Thorogood's departure, it still meant the authority had to deal with the thorny issue of the garage.
The council's Area 2 Development Control Committee will discuss its future in a meeting today.
Mr Thorogood and his wife Alison, a complaints officer with Neath Port Talbot Council, have applied to the committee for retention of the garage incorporating the toilet, shower room, residential accommodation in the roof void and additional windows.
Planning officers have recommend approval on the grounds that while "modifications were not in accordance with approved plans" in an overall sense they would not have an unacceptable adverse effect on neighbours' amenities.
In a report to be considered by the committee today however the Gower Society says, "The council must be as strict as possible in making its decision.
"It is extremely important that no precedent is set by giving retrospective approval that might encourage others to circumvent the planning process and acceptable design in the Gower Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
"When we wrote to the council in September 2005 we asked that a condition be imposed on this building such that the garage may be used only as a garage and no use should be made for residential purposes.
"Such a condition has already been imposed by this council, on other large and potentially inhabitable garages in the AONB area."
The Swansea Civic Society says in the report, "We are very concerned about the application. What was supposed to be a garage and tack room has become a residential unit and to permit this would reflect very badly on the planning department.
"The original plans must be adhered to because to deviate would show a weakened planning department and send out entirely the wrong signal."
In a letter of objection, a Rhossili resident said, "My concern is that other properties have been forced by the planning authority to demolish buildings as they are slightly out of compliance.
"If retrospective planning is given it will make a mockery of these previous decisions and set a precedent."
Planning officers say in the report however that if the garage was to be used for commercial purposes such as a holiday let further planning permission would be required.
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