Play hut gets planning consent despite neighbours' objections

A TREEHOUSE-STYLE hut built for an autistic child has been given retrospective planning approval despite opposition from some neighbours who were worried about being overlooked.

- RICHARD YOULE Senior local democracy reporter

Carmarthenshire council’s planning committee visited the hut after hearing about the application at a meeting last month.

Councillor Steve Williams said he’d been able to see a woman sitting at her computer in a nearby property from the hut. Convening at County Hall on Tuesday, councillors said that the site visit had been worth while.

The deferral had also allowed a further letter of support from a social worker helping the child, who said the raised structure was better off in the front rather than the rear garden of the detached property in Five Roads, near Llanelli.

A committee report said a front-garden hut of its scale, visible from various points on Rehoboth Road, would not normally be permitted but that in this instance the garden was large and generally well-enclosed.

It added that the child had previously been involved in a collision on the road because of his tendency to climb the front wall of the property. The meeting heard he had also fallen from a first-floor window and had been taken to hospital.

Council planning officer John Thomas said the hut was substantially completed and that applicant Jonathan Wilshire hadn't realised permission was needed.